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CODE 



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PUBLIC mSTEUCTION 



STATE OF NEW-YORK. 



PREPARED AND PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE LEGISLATURE, 
UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE 

SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 



ALBANY : 

WEED, PAESONS AND COMPANY, PKINTEK9. 
1856. 



•H73 



THIS VOLUME BELONGS TO THE LIBRAKY OF THE SCHOOL DISTRICT 
TO WHICH IT IS SENT. IT IS TO BE KEPT, HOWEVER, IN THE CUSTODY 
OF THE DISTRICT CLERK, AND DELIVERED BY HIM TO ANY TAXABLE 
INHABITANT OR VOTER OF THE DISTRICT, TO BE RETAINED NOT 
EXCEEDING THREE DAYS ; EXCEPT THAT WHEN ANY ANNUAL, SPECIAL 
OR ADJOURNED DISTRICT MEETING IS TO TAKE PLACE WITHIN FIVE 
DAYS, THIS BOOK IS NOT TO BE DELIVERED TO ANY INHABITANT, BUT 
MUST BE RETAINED BY THE CLERK AND PRODUCED BY HIM AT SUCH 
MEETING FOR CONSULTATION BY THE VOTERS. 

WHEN SENT TO ANY SCHOOL OFFICER, HE HOLDS THE SAME ONLY 
IN HIS OFFICIAL CAPACITY, AND MUST DELIVER IT ON THE EXPIRATION 
OF HIS TERM TO HIS SUCCESSOR IN OFFICE. 



PREFACE. 



The following pages contain a selection from tlie decisions rendered by 
the Superintendents of Common Schools, and their successor, the under- 
signed Superintendent of Public Instruction, since the publication of the 
volume known as Common School Decisions, by Gen. Dix, in 1837. 
Very many of the decisions made in the intervening period relate to 
the construction of statutes which have been so materially changed as 
to render their interpretation no longer important to the school officers. 
Many more were devoted to the discussion of questions relating to the 
expediency of proposed alterations in the boundaries of districts, the 
location of school-houses, and other subjects of merely local interest. 
Those only have been reported which convey instruction upon points 
which the experience of the department has shown most frequently to 
give rise to doubts and misunderstanding, and to embarrass the practical 
administration of our school system. Of such points there are very few 
which have not been decided in numerous cases, but the repetition of 
similar decisions has been avoided as far as practicable. 

The legislature having directed the publication and distribution of 
the laws relating to schools in the same volume with a Digest of the 
Decisions of the State Superintendents, while the latter was in prepara- 
tion, it seemed advisable to arrange, in the form of comments upon 
the various sections of the statutes, much that would otherwise have 
found a place in the Digest. Greater facility of reference was thus 
secured, and the opportunity offered of giving such instructions as may 
serve to anticipate and prevent the most common occasions of dijBBculty. 
These may seem to the intelligent reader as in many instances unneces- 
sarily minute, and as presupposing an almost incredible inattention on 
the part of school officers to the ordinary forms of business and to the 



IV PREFACE. 

precautions against litigation, which every prudent man is in the habit 
of observing. The experience of the department, however, suggests the 
apprehension that the error will be found rather on the side of omission 
than in giving information that is not required. The changes in the 
law affecting the local administration of district affairs have been very 
trifling, but the constant repetition of inquiries in regard to the modes 
of proceeding under it, indicates that the exposition cannot be made too 
specific or minute for the practical wants of a class of officers so 
frequently changing, and so destitute of facilities for obtaining legal 
advice, as those of the school districts. 

It is but just to add that the legal comments, which will be found 
under the various sections of the laws, have been the work of E, Peshine 
Smith, Esq., Deputy Superintendent, and that the whole work has 
received the benefit of his experience in the department, and of his legal 
knowledge and acumen. 

V. M. RICE, 
Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

Albany, November 25, 1856. 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS 

OP 

STATE SUPERINTENDENTS. 



Commissioners cannot declare void proceedings of tlieir predecessors, though 
they may annul, or rescind them. 

The town superintendents of the towns of Seneca, GoAam and Benton, 
declared illegal the proceedings of a previous board, forming District No. 
13, from parts of the said three towns, for an alleged want of authority. 
The district, if legally organized, might have been annulled, but they 
had not power to declare void the proceedings of their predecessors. 
The law confers no such power upon them. The question of illegality 
must be referred to the Superintendent of Public Instruction, or deter- 
mined by some other competent tribunal. 

Per Dix, August 19, 1837. 

An adjourned meeting cannot rescind an election of district officers. 
Per Dix, November 18, 1837. 

Nor can an officer, once elected, be displaced by vote of district. 
Per Dix, November 9, 1838. 

Non-resident children attending the district school, without any 
previous contract or agreement with the trustees, are on the same terms 
as other children. 

Per Dix, October 28, 1837. 

A tax may be levied to finish the erection of a school-house com- 
menced by subscription, provided the district own the site ; if not, the 
subscribers must first relinquish their title to the district. 

Per Dix, May 11, 1838. 

Notice of alteration of a district should be served on dissenting 
trustee. 

Per Dix, February 17, 1838. 
[Dl&EST.] . 1 



2 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

Notices should be served on opposing and not on consenting parties. 
Per Dix, April 9 1838. 

Public money cannot be paid for wages of a past year. In other 
words, public money apportioned for any year, must be expended for 
services performed within that year. 

Per Dix, March 26, 1838. 

Any lawful meeting may, by vote, appropriate the public money on 
hand or to be received. 

Notice of meetings should specify the objects for which they aro 
called ; but omission is not fatal. An aggrieved party may appeal. 

Per Dix, April 20, 1838. 
Per Spencer, March 7, 1840. 

Inhabitants have no right to reelect against his will, a person whose resignation 
has been accepted. 

Daniel Lawrence, whose resignation of the office of trustee of District 
No. 2, Hamburgh, had been accepted by three justices of the peace of 
said town, was subsequently reelected. 

The election was set aside on appeal. The law having constituted 
the justices sole judges of the propriety of a resignation, their decision 
is final, and the inhabitants have no right to disregard it. 

Per Dix, May 9, 1838. 

A teacher who does not keep a proper list of pupils and their attendance, cannot 
recover his wages. The teacher's list is the basis of a rate bill, which the 
trustees cannot legally make without it. 

Per Dix, April 21, 1838. 

The trustees of District No. 6, Coxsackie, refused to pay Daniel 
Searles, a certain balance claimed by him as due for his services as 
teacher. He admitted that he could not furnish them with an attend- 
ance list, as required by law, but alleged that the former trustees had 
directed him to charge different rates of tuition for different studies. 
Held, that the contract was illegal, and could not be enforced against 
their successors. No legal rate-bill could be made out, for want of a 
legal attendance list. 

Per Spencer, July 7, 1841. 

Verbal notice to clerk to call a district meeting is sufficient. A 
trustee who attends cannot object that he did not authorize the call. 

Per Dix, November 24, 1838. 

In an appeal to set aside the proceedings of a meeting on account of 
illegal voting it is not enough to allege that a man was not a legal 
voter. The specific grounds of disqualification should be set forth. 

Per Dix, December 1, 1838. 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 8 

Trustees may contract with a teacher to pay him any stipulated sum 
for wages ; but a tax, or rate bill, cannot be levied for his board separately, 
as contradistinguished from the remainder of his wages. He must 
provide for his own board, or it must be paid for by the voluntary con- 
tributions of the inhabitants. 

Per Dix, December 15, 1838. 

A pupil should not be dismissed from school, except for a degree of 
moral depravity, which would render his association dangerous to other 
scholars, or for violent insubordination which would render it impracti- 
cable to maintain discipline and order. 

Per Dix, January 19, 1839. 

A school district cannot by vote authorize trustees to borrow money 
on its credit. If the trustees advance money to purchase a library, they 
may repay themselves out of money voted by tax for that purpose, or 
received from the state, but they cannot charge interest. 

A tax for contingent expenses is erroneous ; but the district may 
vote to raise a specified smn, to be expended in the purchase of enume- 
rated articles. 

Per Spencer, March 29, 1839. 

A two story school-house may be built upon land leased, with the agreement 
that the rent, or consideration of the grant, shall be the use by th^^ lessor, 
of the upper story out of school hours. 

The consistory of the Reformed Dutch Church, in the town of Green- 
bush, granted to District No. 2, of said town, a lot of land for a school- 
house site, so long as the same should be used for that purpose, reserving 
an annual rent. Subsequent to the execution of the lease, an agreement 
was entered into between the trustees and the consistory, that the 
school-house should be built with two stories, and that when the upper 
story was not wanted for school purposes, the consistory might use it, 
and such use, while permitted, should be in full payment for the rent. 
With full knowledge of this agreement, the district, 33 to 7, voted to 
raise a tax of $400, to procure the site and erect a school-house. Held, 
that the use of the upper story, by the consistory, was a fair equivalent 
for the rent, and that the agreement was not improper or illegal. 

Per Spencer, April 28, 1839. 

The public money must be applied to the payment of the wages of 
qualified teachers, and for no other purposes. Debts due the district, or 
bought by the trustees, cannot be ofiset against the wages. Nothing 
but payment to, or on the order of, the teacher is a compliance with the 
law. 

Per Spencer, April 23, 1839. 

In the absence of any legal provision on the subject, the district may 
fix the date of their annual meeting, three, six, or nine months, or any 



4 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

time witliin the ensuing year. The district officers, however, should 
not be elected until the time is fixed, in order to prevent any dispute as 
to their term of office. 

Per Spencer, May 6, 1839. 

School may be opened with prayers, provided that it be done before school hours, 
and that there be no compulsion to enforce attendance. 

In an appeal to the superintendent, certain inhabitants of District 
No. 15, Barre, complained that the teacher, with the permission of the 
trustees, " made prayer part of school discipline." The trustees replied 
that they had permitted the teacher to have prayers, on condition that 
they should be had previous to school hours, and they alleged that he 
did not occupy school hours. The superintendent dismissed the appeal, 
with the following remarks : 

" In this conduct of the trustees, the superintendent can perceive no 
cause of complaint. Both parties have rights ; the one to bring up 
their children in the practice of publicly thanking their Creator for his 
protection, and invoking his blessing , the other, of declining in behalf 
of their children, the religious services of any person in whose creed 
they may not concur, or for other reasons satisfactory to themselves. 
These rights are reciprocal, and should be protected equally ; and 
neither should interfere with the other. Those who desire that their 
children should engage in public prayer, have no right to compel other 
children to unite in the exercise, against the wishes of their parents. 
Nor have those Avho object to the time, place or manner of praying, or 
to the person who conducts the exercises, a right to deprive the other 
class of the opportunity of habituating their children to what they con- 
ceive an imperious duty. Neither the common school system, nor any 
other social system, can be maintained, unless the conscientious views of 
all are equally respected. The simple rule, so to exercise your own 
rights, as not to infringe on those of others, will preserve equal justice 
among all, promote harmony, and insure success to our schools. In the 
present case, the superintendent thinks the trustees had lawful right to 
permit the teacher to commence the business of the day by public 
prayer, with the children of such parents as desired it ; and they were 
also right in directing that such exercises should not take place during 
school hours, nor form a part of school discipline." 

Another branch of this first question is, whether the teacher has a 
right to compel the children to kneel, during prayer, or to dispense with 
their ordinary business. 

The answer already given proceeds upon the principle that prayer is 
no part of the business of a common school, but that parents may place 
their children under the superintendence and government of a teacher 
for that purpose. Of course his jurisdiction would extend to that only. 
But others have no right to disturb the performance of wliat is con- 
sidered a sacred duty. As the one class is required to abstain from 
all attempts to compel the children of the other class to engage in an 
exercise which the latter disapprove, so the latter should abstain from 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 5 

interrupting such exercise, and should instruct their children, accord- 
ingly, not to enter the school room, until the usual hour of commencing 
school, and not to disturb those within by any noise, or other conduct 
calculated to annoy them. And the teacher should allow the children 
of all parents, who do not desire them to engage in prayer, to with- 
draw from the room, or to absent themselves from it. But if they 
come into the room before the usual school hours, and choose to remain 
there during prayer, they must preserve the order and decorum befitting 
such an occasion. 

Per Spencer, May 13, 1839. 

District officers cease to be such, when set off from an old district to a new one. 

If a new district (15) was erected out of No. 2, and No. 2 was not 
declared a new district, it is in law the same district, although its terri- 
tory may be diminished ; and the trustees and ofiicers in office at the 
time of the division, and residing in No. 2, will continue such during 
the year for which they were elected. But such of them as reside in 
District No. 15, and do not change their residence to No. 2, cease to be 
ofiicers of No. 2, by virtue of the provision of the statute, which declares 
in reference to a local officer, that a vacancy is created by an incumbent 
ceasing to he an inhabitant of the district for which he was appointed. 

Per Spencer, May 15, 1839. 

A person elected at the same time, clerk and trustee, and accepting 
the office of trustee, vacates the clerkship, and a new clerk must be 
elected or appointed in his place. 

Per Spencer, May 22, 1889. 

Trustees are bound to open a district school, whenever tlie inhabitants or any of 
them, are willing to bear the expense, and the district cannot abridge their 
powers. 

One inhabitant with four children, and another with two children, 
requested the trustees of District No. 12, Vernon and Stockbridge, to open 
a summer school. The trustees refused, assigning as a reason that they 
desired a division of the district, and were disposed to render the pre- 
sent organization as little beneficial as possible. 

It was held that it was their duty to have a school kept whenever 
there was a number of children to attend, suflicient to defray the 
expense ; or if a portion of the public money had been assigned to each 
term, whenever the public money and rate-bills would defray the 
expense. The duty is as applicable to summer as to winter schools. 
The very object and business of their office is to provide schools, and no 
district meeting can abridge their powers, or relieve them from the per- 
formance of their duty. 

Per Spencer, July 17, 1839. 



6 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

The dissolution, or annulling, of a district is not an alteration. 

Wlien an alteration is made, the presumption arises that something 
of the original remains. Its total destruction precludes such a pre- 
sumption. 

Under the constitution of 1822, the legislature could not pass any law 
creating, continuing, altering^ or renewing any body politic or corporate 
without a vote of two-thirds in its favor. 

The legislature repeatedly passed laws repealing charters, on the ground 
that a repeal was not an alteration, and that such repeal did not come 
within the spirit of the provision, any more than it did within its letter. 

Per Spencer, July 26, 1839. 

A school district cannot delegate the power to select a school-house site. A de- 
signation should be specific as to location and size. 

The inhabitants of District No. 15, in the town of Smyrna, at their 
first meeting, resolved that the trustees purchase a site for the school- 
house, on the corner of Benjamin Hartw ell's land, or on Seth Shep 
ard's land where the cooper's shop now stands. 

The trustees selected the corner of Benjariiin Hartwell's land, paid 
forty dollars for the site, and contracted for the erection of a house. 

They then called a special meeting, for the purpose of ratifying what 
they had done, and raising money to finish the house. 

The meeting, by a vote of 26 to 12, refused to ratify their selection, 
and passed a resolution that the site should be " at a certain beech tree 
in widow Brown's hollow." 

The supreme court, in the case of Benjamin vs. Hall, 17 Wendell, 
437, decided that the district could not delegate the power to designate 
a school-house site to the trustees. It cannot make any diff"erence 
whether a general authority to select is given, or whether the authority 
is to choose between two points. 

The designation made by the special meeting is too indefinite. Ver- 
bal explanations, not a part of the record, though given at the meeting, 
cannot be permitted to locate the spot. The vote was utterly void for 
uncertainty. 

Per Spencer, August 26, 1839. 

Any subsequent resolution, directly, or necessarily repugnant, to a 
previous one, repeals it. 

Per Spencer, September 7, 1839. 

That part of the district library, purchased with money raised by tax 
upon the district, may be sold. 

Per Spencer, September 17, 1839. 

Three qualified voters constitute a valid meeting. 

The annual meeting of District No. 9, Erin, and No. 12, Elmira, in 
1839, was duly notified and held, at the time and place appointed at 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. Y 

the last preceding annual meeting. The district clerk and two other 
persons only were present. The proceedings of the meeting were 
regular. The law has not specified what number shall constitute a 
district meeting, and when the notice has been fair and public, and the 
meeting held at the usual time and place, and the proceedings regular, 
it must be deemed valid. 

Per Spencer, October 22, 1839. 

A trustee cannot be librarian. 

A librarian is subject to the direction of the trustees, and responsible 
to them. There is an incongruity in a man being subject and responsible 
to himself. There is the same incompatibility between the offices of 
librarian and trustee, as collector and trustee. 

Per Spencer, November 25, 1839. 

When a school-house is so decayed as to be no longer adapted to its 
purposes, the district may raise money by tax to build a new one, by a 
majority vote, and without a special notice of the intent to propose such 
a tax, at an annual or a special meeting. 

Per Spencer, January 15, 1840. 

The occupancy of a school-bouse sufficient notice to purcliaser of land 

Twenty years previous to the date of appeal, District No. 6, Linclc- 
laen, had taken a lease of a site for the school-house, for as long a period 
as the same should be occupied for a district school. James S. Graves 
purchased the land and appurtenances, without any reservation, and 
forbade the trustees from entering upon it, or from occupying the 
school-house. 

Mr. Graves purchased the land subject to the lease, and the fact that 
the land was occupied by the district for a school-house and site, was 
sufficient notice to him. The district has a rightful claim to the posses- 
sion of the land under the lease, and should take legal measures to assert 
their right. The occupancy is sufficient notice to the purchaser of the 
title of the district, and he is bound to ascertain it at his peril, notwith- 
standing the omission to put the lease upon record. 

Per Spencer, January 23, 1840 

Trustees are not empowered to receive a note in payment for a tax imijosed by 
them, and cannot maintain an action to enforce payment. 

The trustees of District No. 8, in the town of Mentz, took a note from 
S. P. Clark in payment of a tax assessed upon his farm. Upon appeal 
it appeared that Mr. Clark had been erroneously taxed in District No. 
8, while he was yet a resident of District No. 7. Held that the note 
was void, and could not be collected, even if the tax had been legally 
assessed. 

Per Spencer, March 24, 1840. 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 



An order by a board of officers of two towns, dissolving a joint district, and 
setting off a part thereof to a district partly in a third town, valid as to dis- 
solution, but illegal as to annexing part to district partly in third towa. 

The commissioners of Argyle and Fort Edward, on the 31st Decem- 
ber, 1838, dissolved joint District No. 4, in said towns, and annexed one 
portion thereof to district No. 15, in Argyle, and the residue to District 
No. 3, in the town of Fort Edward. District No. 3, was a joint dis- 
trict, partly in Fort Edward and partly in Greenwich ; and the commis- 
sioners of the latter town were not notified of the meeting and did not 
attend. There may be cases where an order, void in part, is void alto- 
gether. In this the commissioners of Argyle and Fort Edward had 
jurisdiction over District No. 4, but not over District No. 3. The order 
for the dissolution of District No. 4, is therefore valid, and having no 
necessary connection with that part of the order annexing a part thereof to 
District No. 3, must stand, while the part of the order aftecting District 
No. 3, is void, for want of jurisdiction. 

Per Spencer, May 21, 1840. 

The same principle is established in another case. 

On the 20th of April, 1840, the commissioners of the towns of New- 
stead and Clarence, set off from joint District No. 4, in Clarence and 2 
in Ncwstead, all that part of the district lying in the town of Clarence. 

Subsequently, and on the same day, the commissioners of Clarence 
formed District No. 19, in said town, out of the territory so set off, and 
a portion of District No. 5 in the same town ; and also the farms of 
four persons set off' on the same day by the commissioners of Clarence 
and Lancaster from two joint districts in said towns. 

The acts of the commissioners were strictly in compliance with the 
law. A joint board was first formed and the inhabitants intended to be 
annexed to the new district were set off from the joint districts. Then 
the commissioners of Clarence within whose separate jurisdiction the 
inhabitants so detached reverted, very properly annexed them to the 
new district. This was the true mode of procedure. The powers of 
the joint board ceased when the territory ceased to be a joint district. 

Per Spencer, June 18, 1840. 

Notice of alteration must be given before order can take eifect. 

When a district has been altered without the previous consent of the 
trustees, a notice in writing of the alteration must be served upon them. 
This notice is essential to the completion of the transaction, as without 
it the order cannot take effect. It cannot be presumed that the notice 
has been given because the order has been made. The doctrine of 
presiimption applies only to those cases where the act in question should 
have been performed in the regular and ordinary course, previous to the 
final act, and was necessarily incidental to it ; as after a sale upon 
execution, a levy will be presumed. A notice in writing is a condition 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 9 

subsequent to an order for alteration, and until it is given the order lies 

in abeyance, and without effect. 

Per Spencer, July 27, 1840. 

The establishment of a district by a decision upon appeal to the 
department, is final and conclusive ; and the district is not subject to 
alteration by the local authorities, while the circumstances remain 
unchanged. But it is absurd to contend that when the circumstances 
under which a decision is pronounced, have materially changed, and 
after the districts or either of them have increased or diminished in 
territory, number or valuation, the local authorities are precluded from 
interference, by the conclusive operation of a decision, founded on an 
entirely different state of facts. Such a doctrine would be entirely 
inconsistent with reason and good sense. 

Per Spencer, September 24, 1840. 

The county treasurer is bound to pay over to each town all the school 
money apportioned to it and received by him from the. state treasury. 
He cannot retain a per centage for receiving and disbursing, out of the 
money in his hands. Whatever claim he has is a charge against the 
county. 

Per Spencer, October 12, 1840. 

The trustees are bound to call district meetings when requested to do so by a 
respectable number of inhabitants for a legitimate object. 

One of the trustees of District No. 19, partly in Liecester and partly 
in Perry, resigned his office, and subsequently united with fifteen others 
in a petition to the remaining trustees to call a special meeting to fill 
the vacancy, and to transact such other business as might be deemed 
necessary. 

The trustees declined to make the call on the ground that they were 
apprehensive that the meeting if called, might make such disposition 
of the public money as would interfere with previous arrangements, 
and prove detrimental to the school then in operation. 

The filling of an existing vacancy was a proper and legal purpose, and 
the meeting, if called within thirty days after the happening of the 
vacancy, might have elected a person. Before an appeal could be 
decided, the time within which the inhabitants can be called together, 
will have expired, and the vacancy must be filled by appointment. 
Tlie trustees have no right to conjecture that a meeting will adopt 
measures to injm'e the school. The principle cannot be sanctioned tor 
a moment, that the trustees may refuse to call a meeting of the inhabi- 
tants, upon the ground that the latter may adopt measures at variance 
with the views of the former, as to the interests and welfare of the 
district. The trustees are the representatives and servants of the dis- 
trict, bound to carry out and obey the will of the inhabitants, when 

rDlGEST.] 2 



10 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

legally expressed, and not warranted in attempting in any manner to 
thwart their wishes. 

Per Spencer, December 23, 1840. 

Trustees cannot dismiss a teacher, on the ground that some of the inliabitants are 
dissatisfied with him, while they themselves are not dissatisfied. 

James M. Grooty was employed to teach school in District No. 2, 
New Baltimore, for five months, at $11 a month, on condition that if 
the trustees should find any fault with him at the end of a month, they 
were to notify him, pay him for the month's services, and dismiss him. 
He taught school from the 9th November to the 21st day of January, 
when the trustees dismissed him, on the ground of dissatisfaction on the 
part of some of the inhabitants, at the same time publicly stating that 
they had no cause of complaint. 

One inonth was ample time to discover faults of character, discipline, 
government and modes of teaching, and if the trustees did not, within 
that time, give Mr. Grooty notice, they could not subsequently dismiss him, 
and release themselves from their contract. A mere allegation that 
the inhabitants were dissatisfied, would be insufiicient cause of dismissal 
at any time. They should be able to show who are dissatisfied and for 
what cause. 

The teacher did not undertake, expressly, or by implication, to satisfy 
every person in the district, and it would have been absurd to require 
or expect it. The trustees were ordered to reinstate Mr. Grooty in his 
school, and at the end of five months from November 19, to pay him 
his wages at $11 per month, without any deduction for the time between 
his dismissal, and his reinstatement. 

Per Spencer, March 6, 1841. 

Children of non-residents are not entitled to attend a district school 
without permission of the trustees, and upon such terms as may be 
agreed upon. They cannot be permitted to share in the public money, 
appropriated to the district, under any circumstances. 

Per Spencer, March 26, 1841. 

A conditional consent to the alteration of a district cannot be given. 
The trustees must either give or withhold their consent. They can 
annex no conditions. 

Per Spencer, April 12, 1841. 

If the annual meeting be fairly and legally called, if there be nothing 
in the case to show a design to take any undue advantage of the majority, 
if there be no surprise or fraud of any kind, and the proceedings be in 
due and usual form, and those in attendance wait a reasonable time, any 
number of persons is competent to transact business. Persons who 
ue^flect to attend until au hour has elapsed after the time of meeting, 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 11 

specified in the notice, and tlie meeting lias adjourned, have no right to 
call for a reorganization, and much less right to organize a new meeting. 

Per Spencer, May 5, 1841. 

When the district has given no direction, and the trustees have 
already appropriated the public money to a particular term of school, 
the district has no further control over the disposition of it. In the 
absence of any specific directions by the district the trustees can apply 
the money as they may deem best for the interests of the schools. 

Per Spencor, June 15, 1841. 

When a site has been designated and a tax raised for building a 
school-house, a building committee may be appointed by the meeting. 
But contracts are to be made and inoney to be paid out by the trustees, 
and the building committee must be regarded as the agents of the 
trustees, to carry out the direction of the meeting. As agents of the 
trustees, the latter will be responsible for the fulfillment of their con- 
tracts up to the amount of the tax. 

Per Spencer, June 19, 1841. 

The acts of trustees, defacto, holding office under color of an election, subsequently 
declared void and set aside, are valid, and binding upon their successors. 

Samuel S. Lord and John S. Panlow, were elected trustees of District 
No. 6, Lincklaen, at a meeting which was, on appeal, decided to be ille- 
gal, and the proceedings thereat void. 

Before the decision, however, the trustees had contracted to build a 
school-house, in accordance with the proceedings of the meeting at 
which they were elected, and had hired a teacher for the winter school, 
and agreed to pay him $24 of the public money, and had levied and 
partly collected a tax of $50, voted by said meeting toward building the 
school-house. 

Their successors refused to fulfill their contracts, and they appealed. 

Held, that until the decision declaring void the proceedings of the 
meeting that elected them, they were to all intents and purposes the 
legal officers of the district, so far as the public and third persons were 
concerned. They acted in their official and not in their individual 
capacity, for the district and not for themselves. The collection of the 
tax assessed by them could not be resisted ; all their contracts made 
within their official jurisdiction were legal and binding. They were 
competent to transact all the business of the district. Their successors, 
under the decision, succeeded not merely to all their rights, but also to 
all their legal liabilities, and were bound to execute all their contracts 
entered into while acting under color of a legal election. 

Per Spencer, June 25, 1841. 



12 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

If commissioners withhold assent to raise a tax larger than $400, their refusal is 
subject to review upon appeal. 

The inhabitants of the village of Cuba had been united in one district 
by the consolidation of two others. They had been offered a site for a 
school-house, in a central and commodious location, upon the sole con- 
sideration that they should erect upon it a house worth $800. They 
unanimously voted to accept the site and raise the tax, and applied to 
the school commissioners for consent to levy that sum. Consent was 
refused on the ground that the consolidation of the districts would be 
the means of breaking up the select school hitherto maintained in the 
district, and further that the inhabitants were unable to bear the in- 
creased burdens of such an organization. 

The commissioners have a discretionary power to grant, or refuse 
their consent. But in this case it was not wisely exercised. They 
were bound to have a stronger interest in the improvement of the com- 
mon schools, than in the welfare of a private select school. The inha- 
bitants, who ought to understand their own interests, and know their 
pecuniary resources, had unanimously resolved to raise the tax, and 
shoulder the burden of the new organization. The commissioners 
ought not to assume that they had overestimated their ability. 

The majority of the inhabitants of a district, may consist of persons 
destitute themselves of pecuniary resources, and desirous to avail them- 
selves of the property of the minority to build an unnecessarily costly 
school-house for the district. The check, which the commissioners 
possess, to abuses like this, is wise and salutary, and that check was 
undoubtedly conferred, with a view to the possible happening of cases of 
this description. 

The discretion exercised in this case, like that of granting or refusing 
a certificate to a teacher, is the subject of appeal. The authority of 
the superintendent upon appeal, extends to all matters arising under 
the school laws. His decisions have been treated as conclusive by the 
courts, and acquiesced in by .the legislature -and the people. 

The commissioners Avere ordered to give their consent to the tax of 
$800. 

Per Spencer, July 19, 1841. 

Subsequently the same case came up a second time, on the refusal of 
the commissioners to obey the order of the superintendent. The pre- 
vious decision was sustained and enforced in an elaborate opinion, from 
which we take the portions treating of discretionary powers, and the 
appellant jurisdiction of the school department. 

" The discretion of public officers is a legal one, to be governed by 
sound principles, and not by the capricious whim of the individual, and 
the instances are frequent, where courts of law regulate and direct the 
exercise of discretionary power by officers, where third persons have an 
interest in such exercise. The only discretion which courts do not 
undertake to control, is that which, according to Justice Sutherland, 
5 Wendell, 125, 'is not and cannot be governed by any fixed principles 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. IS 

and rules.' Few matters would seem more susceptible of the application 
of fixed rules, than the size of a school-house, necessary to accommodate 
properly a given number of children, the amount of money required for 
its construction, and the ability of a district to raise a given sum. So 
that even upon any of the ordinary processes of law, this would be a 
case where the discretionary power of commissioners could be regulated 
and controlled. But when we consider that a' tribunal has been erected 
for the express purpose of supervising all the officers engaged in the 
administration of the common school system ; that there is scarcely an 
act to be performed by them, which does not involve more or less dis- 
cretion, and that an appeal is given from all these acts in the most com- 
prehensive terms ; we see at once that the rules which would govern 
legal proceedings on common law process, are not the proper guides, 
and that we must recur to broader and more enlarged principles. 

" The word appeal comes from the civil law, and its nature and 
ofiice is to substitute the appellate tribunal for that whose acts are 
examined ; and if the case be one involving discretion, then the appeal 
invokes that very discretion in the superior, in the same manner and to 
the same extent that it was possessed by the inferior. ' The cause is in 
the appellate court' say the supreme court of the United States, in 
1 Wheaton 112 ' as if it were in the inferior court." 

"The great majority of cases decided in this department are those in- 
volving more or less discretionary power. 

" The statute itself enumerates many cases that are entirely of a dis- 
cretionary character. The decisions of district school meetings upon 
any subject upon which they are competent to act, such as the designa- 
tion of the site of a school-house, the amount of money to be raised 
by tax, and the omission to levy taxes, involve large discretion, but are 
nevertheless subject to appeal by the express words of the law. The 
formation and alteration of school districts, must be guided by a sound 
judgment upon various facts and circumstances, such as the number of 
children, the amount of taxable property, the extent of territory, and 
the convenience of the inhabitants. Some fixed rules may be applied, 
but in many cases, the decision must depend on general ideas of the 
propriety and fitness of things. 

" Among cases not enumerated, and which fall within the fourth sub- 
division of the section conferring the right of appeal, the following are 
of daily occurrence, viz : The granting, or refusing a license to a teacher ; 
the valuations of school-houses, or other property on the formation of 
new districts ; the refusal of trustees to call special meetings, to employ 
teachers, or to keep the schools open, and the employment and dismissal 
of teachers ; the government of the school, the admittance, and expul- 
sion of scholars, &c. Indeed it would be difiicult to specify a single act 
which any officer concerned in the administration of the system may 
perform, that has not been the subject of appeal. 

" The present case presents less opportunity for the exercise of discre- 
tion than many of those above enumerated. The expense of a school- 
house must depend upon its size and materials. Its size, the number 



14 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

of rooms, and the proper conveniences, will depend upon the number of 
children in the district of the proper age to occupy it. The only other 
element for consideration, is the ability of the district, a fact easily 
ascertained from the assessment roll. There is, therefore, nothing in 
the nature of the decision to be made, to prevent its being reviewed and 
examined upon fixed and settled principles. 

" So far as our laws afford any analogy in cases of appeal, there does 
not appear to be any distinction between discretionary and other cases. 
Thus appeals to county judges from commissioners of highways, respect- 
ing the opening, altering and discontinuing of highways, necessarily 
involve that discretion which depends on private judgment. 

" Upon the most mature deliberation then, I cannot doubt that the 
granting or refusing of a certificate, that a larger sum than $400 should 
be raised for building a school-house, is necessarily the subject of an 
appeal to the superintendent. And as in all cases of appeal, the statute 
declares his opinion to be ' final,' there must be some mode of giving 
it efi'ect. In the present case, the commissioners decline obedience to 
the order, directing them to grant the required certificate. From that 
refusal, an appeal has been made, and the commissioners have ansAvered. 
The whole system must be very defective, if there be no power to have an 
act performed, which the competent tribunal has determined to be legal 
and proper. Perhaps the appellants may enforce the order of the 
superintendent, by an application to the supreme court for a mandamus. 

" But if there be a more direct, simple and less expensive remedy, I 
am bound to pursue the policy of the statute, in erecting this tribunal, 
by furnishing it. I think there is. It is a universal principle, recognized 
in England and in this country, that the court to which a writ of error, 
or an appeal is brought, is bound to render the judgment which the 
inferior tribunal should have rendered. Upon this principle this 
department may authorize the inhabitants of the district, at a lawful 
meeting, to raise the additional sum necessary for building a new 
school-house, that being the judgment or decision, which, in the opinion 
of the superintendent, the commissioners should have made. I find an 
order of my immediate predecessor, founded on this principle, and 
analagous to the one proposed to be made on this appeal, in the case of 
the trustees of school District No. 30, in Johnstown, in Common 
School Decisions, page 161. The inhabitants of the district had 
authorized the trustees to make such repairs to the school-house as they 
should think necessary and proper, and in pursuance of such authority 
they had contracted with a workman to make the repairs, and agreed 
to pa3^ him |30. But the district refused to vote more than $25. On 
appeal, the superintendent, Mr. Dix held that the district was bound to 
indemnify the trustees ; and he ordered that the trustees should make 
out a tax list ibr the whole amount, and collect it." 

In pursuance of this opinion the district was authorized to raise a 
tax of $400, over and above the |400 which the district could other- 
wise raise, aud the trustees were empowered to levy and collect it. 
Per Spencer, September 18, 1841, 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 15 

Where a teacher Is improperly dismissed, he is entitled to full wages for the period 
named in the contract. 

A. B. Braley had been employed to teach school in District No. 1, in 
the town of Carroll, for four months, at $13 per month. After he had 
taught two and a half months, some of the inhabitants withdrew their 
children for fear the rate bill would be too large. For various causes, 
others followed their example, until the school d.windled down to two or 
three scholars, when the trustees ordered him to quit, about three 
weeks before the expiration of his term, upon the understanding that he 
should complete it if called upon. 

A special meeting, subsequently held, passed a vote to pay the teacher 
for the time actually employed, and no longer. The trustees refused to 
pay him for the full time and he appealed. He had performed, or been 
at all times ready to perform the contract on his part, he was duly 
qualified, his school had been visited by the town and county authorities 
and approved by them. The vote of the district could not affect the 
rights of the parties. The trustees were bound to fulfill the contract, 
and to make out a rate bill. 

Per Young, March 19, 1842. 

The inhahitams legally assembled at any district meeting may vote to raise a tax 

for any purpose authorized by law. 
In case of vacancy two or even one, trustee may do any official act. 
The expense of investigating a title is a part of the expense of a site, and maybe 

legally included in a tax. 

At a meeting held in District No. 3, Williamsburgh, on the third day 
of December, 1852, a tax of $5985.56, was voted, and among the items 
making up the aggregate, were $50 for investigating the title to the site, 
$20 for hiring a room, and $10 for furnishing fuel for a coloi'ed school 
and $601.81 for exemptions of indigent children and $3.75 for a tax 
book. 

It was on appeal, objected that these items were illegal, and impro- 
perly included in the tax. It was, also, in the first instance, objected 
that the meeting was called by but two trustees, there being a vacancy, 
and but two in office at the time. 

On these points the superintendent says : 

When a vacancy exists in the oSice of trustee, the remaining trustees 
are expressly authorized by law to call a meeting of the inhabitants to 
fill such vacancy, and the inhabitants when legally assembled at any 
annual, or special meeting have power to raise a tax for the various pur- 
poses recognized by law. There is no doubt that two, or even one, 
trustee may legally do any oflicial act during the actual existence of a 
vacancy in the oflSce of their, or his colleagues. 

It has been held that the expense of recording of a deed, may be 
included in a tax for purchasing a site, inasmuch as it is necessary to 
perfect the title. On the same principle, the expense of investigating 
the title, is a necessary part of the expense of procuring a site. 



16 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

The items for exemptions, and for the rent of room and cost of fuel 
for the colored school, are expressly authorized by law. The trustees 
have power to exempt indigent persons from the payment of rate bills, 
and their exercise of the power is conclusive, unless set aside on appeal. 

The purchase of tax book is an item not often necessary, but in a 
district comprising the most populous portion of a large village, divided 
into 5000 lots and upwards, with a valuation of $2,000,000, the 
expense of making up a tax list is no inconsiderable item. 
Per Young, April 25, 1842. 

Districts have not power at an adjourned meeting, by reconsidering and rescind- 
ing its former proceedings, to displace officers elected at the annual meeting. 

District No. 19, in the town of Watervleit, held its annual meeting 
on the 29th of March, 1842, and elected its district officers. The 
meeting then adjourned to April 6, and a resolution to reconsider and 
rescind the proceedings of the annual meeting was adopted, by which 
it was attempted to displace one trustee and the district clerk, and elect 
others in their places. 

The department has uniformly held that the officers chosen at the 
annual meeting are the legal officers of the district, until by resignation, 
death, removal from the district, refusal to serve, or expiration of term, 
a vacancy occurs, proper to be filled by election or appointment. 
"When an election has been held in due form, the elective power is 
exhausted. And when a man entitled to hold office has been elected 
and consented to serve, there is no power to take it from him, or debar 
him from assuming its duties. 

Per Young, May 2, 1842. 

Children of temporary residents are to be enumerated in the annual reports of 
trustees. 

The language of the law is that "all children actually residing in the 
district on the first day of January, although such residence may be 
temporary, shall be included in the reports of the trustees." And 
again. "All children included in the reports of the trustees of any 
school district shall be entitled to attend the schools of such district." 

These provisions were evidently intended especially to meet the case 
of the children of laborers on our public works, and others temporarily 
residing in school districts. 

Per Young, May 27, 1842. 

An election set aside, when four voters elected at the very hour of meeting, and a 
majority came in half an hour. 

At the annual . meeting held in District No. 1, in the town of McDo- 
nough, September 12,1841, four persons having met precisely at the 
hour to which the meeting stood adjourned, elected the district officers, 
without waiting for the residue of the inhabitants, a large majority of 
whom appeared within half an hour. This was a manifest case of sur- 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. lY 

prise. An undue and unnecessary advantage was taken of the majority 
of the inhabitants, and officers, not of their choice, imposed upon them. 
Per Young, October 3, 1842. 

An alien, who is a legal voter, may hold office in a school district. 

Mr. George Oliver, an alien, who was entitled to hold real estate, 
having taken the necessary legal steps for that purpose, was elected 
trustee of school District No. 1, Bombay, on the 4th day of October, 1842. 

The superintendent said he was unable to see any good cause why 
any inhabitant of a school district, legally authorized to vote therein, 
should not be admitted to a free participation in the offices of the 
district, or rather why he should claim an exemption from the burdens 
which the law devolves upon the other inhabitants of the district, in 
supervising its affairs from year to year. There is in reality very little 
analogy in cases of this description, to those against which our laws in 
reference to aliens were intended to provide. I am therefore disposed 
to hold any and every legal voter in a school district eligible as an 
officer therein. 

Per Young, November 18, 1842. 

When different parcels of property, of different quality and value, 
lying in two districts, are so coupled together in the town assessment 
roll, in one aggregate valuation, that their separate value is not appa- 
rent, and cannot be fixed, without an exercise of judgment on the part 
of the trustees, a new valuation should be made, and notice given. 
Per Young, Nov. 23, 1842. 

The wages of a teacher employed for the winter term, may be paid 
from the school money to be received the next spring. 

Per Young, November 28, 1842. 

In the absence of any specific directions by the district, the trustees 
may apply the public money to the summer and winter terms of a school 
in such proportions as they may deem just. 

Per Young, January 10, 1843. 

A district meeting may prescribe the terms of a contract for building a school- 
house. 

The trustees of District No. 13, "in the town of Bethany, refused to 
pay Daniel R. Prindle the sum of 172.50 upon his contract for building 
a school-house : 1st. On the ground that they had not executed the 
contract; and 2d. That the school-house was useless to the district 
because the right of way to it, over intervening lands, could not be 
obtained. 

The district meeting, which voted the tax for building the school- 
house, had prescribed the terms of the contract, and the same was 
drawn up at the time by one of the trustees, and signed by the con- 
tractor. The trustees were directed to superintend the erection of the 

[Digest.] 3 



18 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

house according to its terms, and to fulfill it on the part of the district. 
The builder fulfilled his part, and the trm^tees re-^ognized the contract 
by superintending and directing the work. 

The trustees, as the agents and sei'vants o*' the distrct, are the proper 
and indeed only persons to make and execute bargains and contracts on 
the part of the district. But the meeting was competent to specify the 
terms of a contract, and in this case did so, and one of the trustees 
drew it, according to the terms prescribed. The contractor executed it 
ou his part, and performed it. The trustees, by recognizing it and direct- 
ing the work, were in fact parties to it, although they did not sign it. 

The remaining objection is entirely groundless. The contractor for 
building the school-house, cannot be in any way responsible for a failure 
of title to the site, or a right of way to it. The question of title and 
right of way is between the district and the grantors, or owners of the land. 

Having collected the tax of $72.50, levied to pay for the house, they 
are legally and equitably bound to pay over the proceeds to the con- 
tractor. 

Per Young, February 3, 1843. 

The law has not specified any time, within which a warrant for tne collection of 
a tax shall be delivered to the collector. 

Where a tax was voted in June, 1841, and the tax list was made out, 
within the time and in the mode required by laAv, but the warrant for 
collection was not issued till January 31st, the delay was held hot to 
affect its legality, or validity. 

Per Young, March 21, 1843. 

A teacher, for an act of disobedience, ordered a boy, fifteen years of 
age, to hold out a book, of the ordinary size used in schools, at arm's 
length, level with his shoulder. The boy, after holding it in that posi- 
tion from five to eight, or ten minutes, let it fall and said he could not 
hold it any longer. On being ordered to hold it out again, he peremp- 
torily refused. The teacher, then, with -a curled maple rule, over 
twenty inches long, one and three-quarters wide, and half an inch thick, 
struck him from fifteen to twenty blows on his back and thighs, and in 
so severe a manner as to disable him from leaving school without assis- 
tance. A physician was called and found his back and limbs badly 
bruised and swollen. The teacher on the succeeding day, sent to him a 
physician, who pronounced him " very badly bruised." It was ten or 
twelve days before he so far recovered as to be able to attend school. 

The superintendent expresses his unqualified disapprobation of a 
punishment, so severe and unreasonable. If the disobedience of the boy 
had been the result of sheer obstinacy and willfullness, it could not justify 
the infliction of fifteen or twenty blows with such a bludgeon, upon the 
back and limbs of the boy, disabling him for a fortnight. Such a 
measure of punishment for such an offence, would be sufficient ground 
for annulling his certificate. 

Per Young, March 29, 1843. 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 19 

Wlien a board of town officers is called together, for the purpose of 
altering a joint district, a majority of the officers from each town must 
vote in the affirmative to give validity to an order for alteration. 
Per Young, March 28, 1843. 

The inhabitants of a school district have no power to direct the trustees to levy 
a tax, to pay the expenses of an arbitration in settling difficulties in a district. 

The decision of the county superintendent declaring that the inha- 
bitants of District No. 13, in voting a tax to defray or reimburse 
the expenses of an arbitration, and other liabilities which had accrued 
in settling the difficulties to which the district had been exposed for the 
past nine months, had transcended the powers conferred on them by law, 
is strictly in accordance with the previous adjudications of this depart- 
ment, and with the well settled principles by which it has been uniformly 
governed in the disposition of cases of this nature, and must accordingly 
be affirmed. The law has distinctly defined the purposes for which a 
school district tax may be voted ; and the inhabitants can in no case go 
beyond them. That the expenses for which the tax in this case was 
imposed, were incurred by the trustees, under the sanction and directions 
of a district meeting, cannot affect the principle ; the district had no 
legal authority to pass such a vote, and it was in no sense obligatory 
either upon the inhabitants or trustees. The only mode by which the 
trustees can be indemnified for the expenditures incurred by them, is by 
voluntary contribution. They cannot legally enforce the collection of 
a district tax for this purpose. 

Per Young, September 12, 1843. 

The inhabitants of a school district have power to vote a tax to pay the arrears 
of uncollected rate bills. 

The trustees and collector are the agents of the district, and the 
district may hold them to a strict account, and may call upon them 
personally to respond for any loss incurred by their official negligence. 
But the inhabitants have the right to determine whether the negligence 
is of such a character as under the circmnstances is excusable, and con- 
sequently to vote a tax to satisfy the loss. 

Per Young, November 15, 1843. 

A ballot for thre.e trustees being had, and but one elected, a motion to reconsider 
was made, pending which the meeting arljourned. The vote to reconsider 
at the adjourned meeting sustained, and the election of three trustees 
declared valid. 

At the annual meeting held in District No. 4 in Ballston, on the 
2d day of October, 1843, the inhabitants balloted for three trustees. 
On counting the ballots it appeared that one trustee only had been 
elected. A motion was made to reconsider the whole proceeding in 
relation to the election of trustees, pending which the meeting adjourned 
for one week. At the adjourned meeting the motion for reconsideration 



20 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

was put and prevailed and three persons were then chosen trustees by 
ballot. 

From this proceeding the appellant took an appeal to the county 
superintendent, claiming to have been duly elected at the first meeting 
and denying the legal right of the inhabitants at the adjourned meet- 
ing to reconsider the said vote. 

The county superintendent sustained the appeal. 

It is obvious that the election of trustees was not completed at the 
first meeting. One trustee only (the appellant) was chosen ; at the 
adjourned meeting the inhabitants took up the business of the annual 
meeting where they had left it, and agreed to the motion to reconsider. 
After such reconsideration three other persons Avere duly elected. The 
adjourned meeting was a continuance of the annual meeting, and it was 
undoubtedly legally competent for the inhabitants at either meeting to 
reconsider or rescind the whole or any part of their proceedings. Had 
it been otherwise the district must have been left with one trustee only. 

The decision of the county superintendent must be reversed. 
Per Young, November 15, 1843. 

If a portion of the inhabitants in a school district meeting voluntarily withdraw 
therefrom, those remaining may organize and proceed to do the business for 
which the meeting was called. 

This is an appeal from the proceedings of the last annual meeting, 
held in District No. 13, Walworth and Ontario. The meeting as des- 
cribed by each of the parties, was a strong one, and many attempts 
were made to elect district officers, every candidate nominated being 
voted down. At length a portion of the inhabitants withdrew from 
the meeting, among whom were the moderator and old officers of the 
district. The rest of the inhabitants immediately chose a new mode- 
rator and proceeded to elect district officers for the ensuing year and to 
transact the business usual at an annual meeting. 

As there was no adjoiirnment, but a voluntary withdrawal of the 
appellants, those who remained had a legal right to organize anew and 
proceed to business. The proceedings of the meeting are therefore 
declared to be regular and the appeal dismissed. 

Per Morgan, March, 1848. 

An annual meeting will be held to be legal, although the proper notices are not 
given, if the inhabitants assemble at the time and place to which it was 
adjourned the previous year. 

Per Morgan, November, 1848. 

It is the duty of the trustees, at the request of a respectable number of the legal 
voters of a district, to call a special meeting, although the inhabitants may 
have acted upon the same subject in school meeting. 

A school meeting in District No. 2, in Litchfield, directed about $9 
of the library money to be expended in the purchase of globes, and also 
voted a tax of $270, for the purpose of building a new school-house. 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 21 

The trustees refused to call a special meeting for the purpose of taking 
a new vote of the district upon the question of building a school-house, 
though requested to call such meeting by fourteen legal voters of the 
district. The- trustees were wrong in their refusal to call a district 
meeting, at the request of so large a number of the inhabitants. It is 
proper that the'legal voters should have an opportunity, if they desire 
it, to vote again upon the question. It is therefore ordered that the 
trustees call a meeting, in accordance with the request of the appellants. 

Per Morgan, February, 1848 

An annual meeting cannot be held at any particular time, unless it was adjourned 
to some particular day, or the trustees have given special notice for it. 

The facts in the case are as follows : For several years the annual 
meetings of the district had been held on the 2d Tuesday of Octo- 
ber, according to the adjournment of each preceding annual meeting, 
except that the annual meeting of 1847 was adjourned without date, 
and the meeting held on the 2d day of October, 1848, was sujjposed 
to be authorized from the custom of the district, although the annual 
meeting of the preceding year did not adjourn to that date. 

The meeting of the 2d Tuesday of October, 1848, was organized 
without the notices being given by the district clerk as required by law 
and without the authority of the trustees. Under these circumstances 
the trustees called a special meeting to be held the 24th day of No- 
vember, 1848. The decision of this appeal depends upon the legality 
of the meeting and not upon the regularity of the proceedings, for if the 
decision depended upon the regularity of the proceedings, this depart- 
ment would regard them as valid, unless duly appealed from. But 
district meetings which are strictly illegal cannot be made legal by the 
lapse of time. 

It is provided by §65 of the School Laws that "at each annual 
meeting, the time and place of holding the next annual meeting shall 
be fixed," and in case the district omit to designate the day for holding 
its annual meeting, the trustees can appoint the time. This does not 
give the district authority to establish any date for holding the annual 
meeting for a series of years. 

The meeting of the 2d Tuesday of October, could not therefore 
be regarded as the annual meeting of the district, on the ground that 
the annual meetings of former years had been held at that date by re- 
gular adjournments. Either the time should have been designated at the 
annual meeting of 1847, or the trustees should have called the meeting 
and the proper notices should have been given. 

Per Morgan, January, 1849. 



22 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 



When the assessment roll of a town is at the county seat in the custody of the 
board of supervisors, and a tax is voted in its absence, it is a sufficient ex- 
cuse for not making out the tax list within thirty days after it is voted. 
The statute is merely directory. 

At a district meeting in the town of Wilson, held November 28 
1848, a tax of fifteen dollars was voted for tlie purpose of furnishing 
the school with wood during the winter. 

The last assessment roll of the town being at the county seat, the 
trustees did not make out the tax list within the time directed by law. 
Thinking the tax had become void, they gave the district clerk a verbal 
notice, to cause a special meeting to be held the 20th day of November, 
for the purpose of voting the tax again. The meeting was held and the 
tax voted. Also a tax was voted to repair the school-house, without 
the proper notice being given. Objection being made by some of the 
inhabitants to this meeting : 1st, because the notice of the trustees was 
not written, and 2d, because a tax was voted to repair the school-house 
without the proper notice ; 

The trustees called another meeting, to be held the 23d December, 
for the same purpose. At this meeting the motion to raise the tax for 
wood was negatived. 

From this vote the trustees appeal. According to a vote of the 
district at the annual meeting, the trustees assumed responsibilities in 
behalf of the district for which they were directed to raise a tax. 
Although the tax list may not have been made out within thirty days 
after the tax was voted, no subsequent vote of the district could change 
their liability- to taxation for wood. The trustees acted under the 
direction of the district, and could not therefore be made personally 
responsible, if they acted in good faith. The statute relating to the 
time of making out a tax list is directory merely, and a failure to comply 
with it, through accident or for good reasons, does not render a tax that 
has been voted illegal. The trustees in this case had good reasons for 
not completing the tax list in thirty days, to wit, the absence of the 
assessment roll. The trustees are hereby authorized to levy the tax 
voted at the annual meeting. 

Per Morgan, January, 1849. 

An arbitration between the trustees of a school district and a person having a 
claim against it, is proper and legal, and the award binding on the parties. 
Per Morgan, February 19, 1848. 

It is the duty of the collector to obey the mandate of his warrant, and proceed to 
collect the tax or rate bill. If he neglect to do so, he is liable to be fined. 
The trustees cannot release the bail of the collector from the obligations of 
his bond. 

The trustees of District No. Y, in Cuba, delivered a rate bill and 
warrant to the collector of the district for collection, and required of 
him a bond, conditioned for the payment of money received by him, 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 23 

whicli was given. Having discovered an error in tlie rate bill, tlie 
trustees took it from tlie collector to correct it, without procuring the 
assent of the state superintendent. While the rate bill was in their 
hands, the bail of the collector demanded a release from his bond. 

After waiting several days for the collector to procure new bail, and 
his neglecting to do so, the trustees appointed another collector. If the 
trustees released the bail of the collector it was at their own risk, as he 
was bound for the collection of the rate bill and the faithful application 
of the money collected. He did not cease to be the collector of the 
district on the demand of his bail to be released, and if he refuse or 
neglect to perform any of the duties of his office he is finable. His 
office not being vacant the trustees could not appoint another to fill his 
place, and the acts of the trustees in so doing are illegal. 
Per Morgan, November, 1848. 

When costs have been incurred against district officers in suits by or against 
them in the discharge of tlieir official duties, a majority of the voters of the 
district may allow the amount, and the trustees assess the same by tax, or 
the claimants may present their claim to the board of supervisors. 

The inhabitants of District No. 4, on the 4th September last, audited 
the account of the trustees for costs and expenses incurred in certain 
suits commenced by and against them and their predecessors in office, 
and directed the amount so audited and allowed to be collected by a 
tax. The superintendent on a careful examination of this case is satis- 
fied that the account was made out and presented in good faith, that 
the items were such as the district were fully competent to pass upon, and 
that the tax directed to be levied for their payment was equitable and 
just. 

Per Morgan, October, 1849. 

8 Howard's Reports, 125. 

It is illegal for trustees to enumerate children in their districts, between the ages 
of five and sixteen, unless they compose a part of the family of their parents 
or guardians or employers, if such parents or guardians or employers 
reside at the time in such district. 

The trustees in District No. 5, in the town of Davenport, included in 
their annual report, dated December 31, 1848, sixty -two children under 
sixteen and over five years of age attending a private school under 
charge of S. D. Ferguson, The children attending this private school 
had parents residing mostly in New-York and Philadelphia, and the 
parents of none of them in the district. Five of said sixty-two children 
were orphans. It was not known to the department whether the said 
orphans were supported by Mr. Ferguson, or were boarded like the 
rest, or were sent to school by their guardians, but the latter is supposed 
to have been the truth. 

The school law, § 118, of 184Y, directs the trustees to include 
in their report all children over five and under sixteen years of 
age, who shall, at the date of such report, actually be in the district, 



24 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

composing a part of the family of their parents or guardians or 
employers, if such parents or guardians or employers reside at the time 
in such district. From this law it would seem to be very clear, that not 
one of the sixty-two children attending Mr. Ferguson's school could be 
lawfully enumerated in the annual report of the trustees. 

The trustees of District No. 5, were therefore wrong in including these 
children in their report. 

Per Morgan, March, 1849. 

A teacher's certificate of qualification, cannot be annulled without giving him 
notice and a reasonable opportunity, if he desire, to appear and be heard in 
defence. 

The trustees of District No. 5, in Guilford, employed Mr. Matteson to 
teach their school for the winter term. The school commenced Novem- 
ber 1, 1847. November 26, 1847, Mr. Carhart visited the school, exam- 
ined Mr. Matteson, and gave him a certificate. December 6, the super- 
intendent stopped at the door of the school-house and told the teacher 
that complaints had reached his ears in regard to his mode of punishing 
scholars, and intimated that his certificate might be annulled. December 
20th, the superintendent served a notice upon the teacher, that he should 
annul his certificate unless certain complaints " arising from his mode of 
punishment" were cleared up. December 25th, the teacher wrote the 
superintendent requesting an investigation of the charges and complaints 
against him. January 5th, the superintendent annulled the certificate and 
gave notice thereof to the trustees, without having given the teacher any 
opportunity to reply to or explain the charges made against him, and 
assigning as his reasons therefor, the complaints mentioned in his previous 
notice, and his own observations. The trustees all signed a paper stating 
that in their opinion, the charges against the teacher were of a trivial 
character, and wholly unfounded, and that the course of the superintendent 
was "underhanded, prejudiced and ungentlemanly," and "meets our un- 
qualified disapprobation." 

The conduct of the town superintendent in this case will hardly' 
admit of a reasonable explanation. He visits a school twice and then 
gives a teacher a legal certificate. In less than a month he gives the 
teacher notice of his intention to annul his certificate, without having 
in the meantime visited the school or required a reexamination, and 
upon complaints not stated in writing or assuming any tangible shape, 
but so far as appears at the time, mere hearsay reports, and neighbor- 
hood gossip. The pretence that the superintendent had become satis- 
fied from "personal observations" that the teacher was unqualified is 
very strangely inconsistent with the fact that he made no " personal 
observations" after granting the certificate. The teacher requested 
specifications of the charges. None were given. He desired to be 
heard in answer to whatever could be alleged against him. No oppor- 
tunity was allowed. 

A certificate of qualification should not be annulled without a statement 
of the complaint, and an investigation of its truth, and an opportunity 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 25 

given to the teacher to be present during such investigation. Such are 
the rules prescribed by this department in proceedings to annul a 
teacher's certificate, and they are a part of the law. The superintendent 
proceeded in this matter without a proper and needful statement of the 
charges and specifications, and without giving the teacher an opportunity 
to be heard in defence. 

It is therefore decreed that the order of the town superintendent, 
annulling Mr. Matteson's certificate be set aside. 

Per Morgan, February, 1848. 

When a town superintendent connives with a trustee to procure his resignation, 
and conceals it from the district, so that the inhabitants cannot elect a 
successor within thirty days after the resignation, and the town superinten- 
dent then makes the' appointment, the department Avill set the appointment 
aside and order a new election. 

Mr. Johnson, a trustee in District No. 4, Florence, proflFered his 
resignation of office to the superintendent, which was accepted. This 
was done secretly, and obviously with the intention that the district 
should be unacquainted with it until after the expiration of thirty days, 
when the town superintendent could appoint a successor. It is stated 
that the town superintendent gave one of the trustees notice of the 
resignation, but it is clearly shown and is not denied by the town 
superintendent, that this was done with a view of seeming to fulfill, 
rather than to carry out the meaning of the law, and allow the district 
to elect a successor, since this trustee was very cautious about letting 
any one know it. 

The district not being permitted to choose the trustee, the town 
superintendent made the appointment the day before the expiration of 
the thirty days. This department cannot sufl'er a district to be imposed 
upon or deprived of any privileges by the management of officers or 
the intrigue of individuals. It is therefore ordered that the appointment 
of trustee made by the town superintendent of Florence, to supply the 
vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Mr. Johnson, as trustee of 
District No. 4, in said town, be set aside, and that the trustees of said 
district call a special meeting of the inhabitants to fill the vacancy. 

Per Morgan, February, 1489. 

It is not in the power of a district meeting to control the trustees in the exercise 
of their duty of prosecuting delinquent predecessors for not rendering an 
annual account, or for not paying over a balance of money remaining in 
their hands. A resolution attempting to limit their power in this respect is 
void. 

A special meeting held in District No. 1 8 in the town of Sodus, 
February 22, 1848, 

Resolved^ That a former resolution directing measures to be taken to 
collect certain arrearages alleged to be due from former trustees should 
be rescinded ; and further, that no civil proceedings should be com- 

PDlGEST.] 4 



26 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

meneed by the trustees of the district for school moneys not paid over 
by former trustees, unless by a special resolution of the district. 

Both resolutions mentioned in the appeal were adopted, under a 
misapprehension of the powers and duties of the inhabitants when 
assembled in school district meetings. 

Every trustee is bound by law yearly to render an account to the 
district, of the moneys received and paid out by him, and to file said 
account with the district clerk, and also upon going out of ofiice to pay 
over any balance of money remaining in his hands to his successors in 
office. 

For any neglect or refusal to render such account or to pay over such 
balance, the delinquent forfeits to the use and benefit of the district the 
sum of $25.00, to be sued for and recovered either by his successors in 
office or by the town superintendent. The town superintendent (super- 
visor) may also sue the trustees for unpaid balances in their hands. It 
requires no vote of the district to authorize such suit to be brought, 
and a vote directing such suits to be brought, or not to be brought, is a 
nullity. 

Per Morgan, March, 1848. 

The trustees of a school district have no power to correct a tax list after a por- 
tion of the tax has been collected without permission from the department 
of public instruction. 

The town superintendent of Crown Point, having, February 19, 184*7, 
regularly formed a new district in said town, served a notice upon Aaron 
T. Townsend, a taxable inhabitant of said district, together with a copy 
of the order forming the district, requiring him to notify each taxable 
inhabitant of a district meeting to be held on the first of March follow- 
ing. Accordingly notice was given to the inhabitants by notifying them 
of the time and place of holding the meeting. 

A meethig was held on the 1st of March, and adjourned to the 15th, 
at which a tax was voted to build a school-house. The tax list was 
made out by the trustees within thirty days, as required by law, and 
was put into the hands of the collector on the 22d of January, 
1848. On the 5tli of February, the trustees corrected the tax list 
without the approval of this department, having discovered errors in it 
and attaching the corrected list to the old warrant delivered it to the 
collector. This was an irregularity on the part of the trustees after a 
portion of the tax had been collected. The original tax list is the one 
which is in force, and if the trustees have discovered an error in it they 
may, after refunding any amount that may have been collected on such 
tax list, if the same shall be required, amend and correct such tax list in 
conformity to law, and redeliver it to the collector with the old warrant 
attached. 

Per Morgan, June, 1848. 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 27 

Where one trustee engages a teacher to teach in the place designated bj^ a district 
meeting and the otlier two engage a teacher to teach in a place selected by 
themselves, neither is a legal school. 

One trustee cannot legally engage a teacher for the district, neither can two trus- 
tees legally engage a teacher, to teach in a place designated by themselves 
when the district have selected another place. 

The school-house in District No. 7, Guilford, Chenango county, was 
destroyed by fire in January, 184Y. In February following, the inha- 
bitants in district meeting, voted to hire a temporary place for the 
school. Accordingly a school was regularly opened on the 12th of 
May, 1847, in the place so designated. In the following winter tivo of 
the trustees opened a school in another place, without the vote of the 
district and gave an order upon the town superintendent for two-thirds 
of the teacher's money apportioned to the district, which was paid. 

In the meantime, Mr. Mills, the other trustee opened a school in the 
house which had been designated by the district for the summer school. 

Each party claims a right to the public money, but neither is entitled 
to it, as neither school was legally established. 

In all cases the inhabitants of a district are to designate the place 
where the school shall be kept, and trustees alone are responsible for 
the expenses incurred in support of a school opened by them without 
this authority from the district. 

One trustee cannot hire a teacher or open a school without the con- 
currence of at least one other trustee. Nor is any act of the trustees 
valid, without all being consulted, and without a concurrence of a 
majority. 

The public money obtained on the order of the two trustees, could 
not be applied to the payment of their teacher, as the school was not 
a district school. 

It is therefore hereby adjudged and decided, that the public money 
apportioned to District No. 7, Guilford, for teacher s wages, cannot be 
applied to the payment of either of the teachers employed in the schools 
hereinbefore mentioned. 

Per Morgan, July 14, 1848. 

Trustees have no lien on moneys belonging to the district, for expenses incurred 

by them in its behalf. 
If they have been directed by the district to act, they can indemnify themselves 

by levying a tax without a vote of the district for that purpose. 

Mr. Charles Kendall, a trustee of District No. 3,. Bethany, Genesee 
county, had in his hands $18.18 belonging to said district. At a 
special meeting, held May 6, 1848, said sum was appropriated by a vote 
of the district for the purchase of a stove and other purposes. 

Mr. Kendall claims that the district should pay him for the use of a 
stove bought by him, and placed in the school-house without the 
authority of a vote of the district. The district refused to purchase the 
stove of Mr. Kendall, bought by him in good faith, and he retains in his 
hands |3 for the use thereof. The good or bad designs either of 



28 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

Mr. Kendall or of the district, can in no wise affect tlie case, so as tc 
render the district liable for the stove. 

Mr. Kendall also claims that he should be allowed $3, which he 
alleges he paid for the district, in pursuance of a vote of the district. 
It is not stated when nor for what purpose the $3 were expended, 
nor are any dates given, except that the annual report of the trustees 
in 1847, acknowledged the 83, as a debt due Mr. Kendall from the 
district. But the district clerk certifies that the records of the district 
contain no mention of the said $3. 

Mr. Kendall fails to establish a good claim against the district for 
the $6. 

Per A. G. Johnson, Dep. Supt., August 5, 1848. 

The official acts of two trustees, performed without notifying or consulting the 
other, are ihegal and void. 

At a district meeting held in District No. 7, Guilford, Chenango 
county, September 5th, 1848, a resolution was passed directing the school 
to be kept in a room near Samuel Godfrey's, three years from the 
1st day of April preceding. 

It appears that the school-house in District No. 7, was burned in 
January, 1847. On the 20th of February, 1847, a meeting was held in 
the district, at which a site for a school-house was designated. This 
meeting was adjourned to the 27th of the same month, when the 
vote establishing the site was rescinded. Two of the trustees called 
a special meeting, to be held on the 15th of September, 1847, 
without notifying or consulting the other trustee. At this meeting, a 
tax was voted to pay for the site of a school-house, without designating 
the same, and also a tax to build a school-house. 

The two trustees made out a tax list, dated December 24, 1847, and 
delivered it with their warrant attached, to the collector, on the 4th 
of January following, more than three months after the tax was voted. 
With the money thus raised, a school-house was built upon the site 
selected by the district, on the 20th day of February, but which 
was annulled by said district, at the adjourned meeting of the 27th 
of the same month. 

The proceedings, in raising the tax and building the school-house 
cannot be sustained. The meeting called by two trustees, without 
consulting or notifying the other trustee, was illegal, and the votes of 
that meeting were void. 

It is therefore decided that the house built upon the site not esta- 
blished by the district, and with a tax not legally raised, is not the 
school-house of the district, and that the vote of the district taken at 
the meeting of the 5th of September, 1848, ordering the school to be 
kept " in the room near Samuel Godfrey's," was legal. 

Per Morgan, November 16, 1848. 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 29 

Where a person voted at a district meeting on the ground that he had $50 in per- 
sonal property liable to taxation, it is the duty of the trustees to include him 
in their tax list, even though his name be not on the assessment roll of the 
town, and if they neglect to do so, the department will set aside their assess- 
ment, and order them to include the person so left out. 

At a district meeting held in District No. 8, Marcy, Oneida county, 
on the 18th day of August, 1848, a tax of $100 was voted to be 
raised by two equal installments, for the purpose of building a school- 
house. 

The trustees made out a tax list for the whole amount, and after 
giving the notice required by law, and no one appearing before them to 
claim reduction, delivered it with their warrant attached to the collector. 

Objection is now made to this assessment, because persons are not 
included in the tax list Avho voted at the meeting to raise the tax, upon 
the qualification of having personal property to the amount of $50 liable 
to taxation. 

In making out the tax list, trustees should assess all the taxable 
inhabitants of their district, whether they are included in the last 
assessment roll of the town or not. But they are not required to 
include a person in a tax list, upon the supjjosition that he has personal 
property liable to taxation. They must have satisfactory proo^ of it, as 
that a person has come into possession of property since the last assess- 
ment roll of the town, by inheritance or otherwise, or as in the present 
case, that a person voted at a district meeting under the qualification of 
having $50 personal property liable to taxation. 

The trustees must include such persons in their tax list. It is there- 
fore hereby decided that the tax list made out by the trustees of 
District No. 8, Marcy, in which all the taxable inhabitants of the district 
were not included, is illegal. 

Per Morgan, November 20, 1848. 

Trustees of a school district have the sole power of making contracts relating to 
their districts, and of accepting the work performed under them. 

The trustees of District No. *?, Depuyster, St. Lawrence county, by 
authority from the district, contracted with a builder to construct a 
school-house, to be completed by the 1st of November, 1848. The 
house was not completed until about a month after the time specified, 
and was not such an one in every particular as was contemplated in-^ the 
contract. 

After consultation, the trustees accepted the building, thinking it 
better to do so than to subject themselves and the district to further 
trouble. 

The acceptance of the building is appealed from, on the ground that 
the taxable inhabitants of the district have been wronged. 

The trustees of a school district have the sole power of making con- 
tracts relating to their district, and of accepting the work performed 
under them. And in the absence of fraud or bad faith, there appears 
to be no way of rendering them liable for their acts. 



30 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

In the present case, there appears to be no evidence of bad faith or 
intention to defraud the district. This department cannot therefere 
interfere. 

Per Morgan, January 27, 1849. 

The trustees of a district are the only legal authority by which the vote of a 
district can be carried into execution. 

At a special meeting held in District No. 2, Centreville, Allegany 
county, November 4th, 1848, it was voted to change the site of the 
school-house, by a majority of votes. The district being an altered one 
this vote was sufficient. 

The site selected is situated at the extreme southern part of the 
district, making the distance which children residing in the extreme 
northern part of the district would be compelled to travel, about four 
miles. 

The inhabitants authorized Mr. Asa Bobbins to superintend the 
removal of the house, without being associated with the trustees. 

The trustees forbade Mr. Robbins to move the house from the old 
site. He, however, disregarding their remonstrance, located it upon 
the new site. 

The trustees of a district are the only legal authority by Avhich the 
votes of the district can be carried into execution. And although the 
inhabitants at a distn'ct meeting may direct that the trustees shall 
contract with a certain person to perform certain work, and that such 
person shall be associated with the trustees in such work, they cannot 
authorize such person to do any act, nor can the district contract with 
him, except through the trustees 

The vote directing Mr. Robbins to superintend the removal of the 
school-house without the intervention of the trustees, was therefore 
illegal. And Mr. Robbins became a trespasser, after being forbidden by 
the trustees to move the school-house. 

Per Morgan, February 3, 1849. 

It is the duty of the inhabitants of a school district to dispose of the old school- 
house, and to apply the avails thereof towards purchasing a new house 
and site. Neglecting so to do, this department will set aside proceedings to 
raise a tax for building the new house. 

The points relied upon by the appellants are in substance, as follows : 
1st. That the district not being an altered one, and the site having 
been changed by a majority vote, and without, the certificate of the 
town superintendent, the proceedings were invalid on this account. 

To this it is a sufficient answer that the district had no title to the site 
on which the school-house stood, and it was therefore lawful for a ma- 
jority of the inhabitants to direct the purchase of a site without the 
certificate of the town superintendent. 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 31 

2d. That the house owned and occupied by the district as a school- ' 
house, was not sold and the avails applied in diminution of the tax for 
building a new house. 

This point, in the judgment of the superintendent, is well taken. The 
tax payers of the district had a right to the avails of the sales of the 
old house in diminution of their tax, for building the new one ; and in 
the absence of any direction of the district on the subject, it was the 
duty of the trustees to have sold the house and applied the proceeds to 
the reduction of the aggregate amount voted by the district for the 
purchase of the site and the building of the house. For aught that 
appears to the contrary, the sum that might have been realized on the 
sale might have swelled the entire appropriation for building the house 
to a sum exceeding $400, and thereby rendered the certificate of the 
town superintendent necessary. 

Upon the whole the superintendent sees no sufficient reason for dis- 
turbing the proceedings in this case, further than to direct the trustees, 
forthwith to dispose of the house formerly belonging to the district, on 
the best terms they can procure and to apply the avails in reduction of 
the aggregate amount of the tax for purchasing the site and building 
the house. For this purpose the further collection of the tax list here- 
tofore made out will be suspended, and the amount collected refunded 
and a new tax list and warrant made out for the amount remaining after 
the application of the avails of the sale of the old house in accordance 
with law. 

Per Young, January 24, 1844. 

Trustees should always exercise a liberal discretion in exempting indigent per- 
sons from the payment of teachers' wages. 

The appellant, Henry Pulver, complains that the trustees of District 
No. 9, Redhook and Milan, have not exempted him from the payment 
of teachers' wages, which he claims they should have done on account 
of his indigent circumstances. 

It appears that said Pulver has a family of four children, that he is in 
poor health, and has no means of supporting himself and family except 
by his feeble exertions as a day laborer which afford a scanty supply. 

Trustees should always exercise a liberal discretion in exempting indi- 
gent persons from the payment of teachers' wages. Poverty should 
never be an excuse for depriving any children in a district of the privi- 
leges of the school. 

The trustees of said district are therefore hereby required to exempt 
Henry Pulver from the payment of teachers' wages in the rate bill 
which is now in the collector's hands, and to make his proportion of the 
rate bill a charge upon the district. 

Per Morgan, November 28, 1848. 



32 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 



A school district has no authority by law, and this department will not permit the 
inhabitants, to give a perpetual lease for the site of a school-house. The 
district should have the fee simple before building. 

The trustees of District No. 5, in the city of Troy, called a special 
meeting of the district to be held on the 29th of February, 1848. This 
meeting was organized and adjourned to the 27th of March following. 

At the adjourned meeting, a resolution which had been introduced at 
the previous meeting and laid on the table for future action was called 
up. The resolution was amended, and as amended adopted unani- 
mously. The resolution adopted read as follows : 

^^Eesohed, That the trustees of School District No. 5, of the city of 
Troy, be directed by and with the consent of the school commissioners 
of the city of Troy, to lease from Messrs. IMarshall, Belding and Christie, 
lots Nos. 14, 15 and 16, on the north side of Christie-street, in the 5th 
ward of the city, of Troy, at a yearly rent not exceeding the sum of 
$34 per annum with the privilege of buying off said rent at seven per 
cent within ten years from date." 

The contemplated lease was for the site of a school-house. 

The only question necessary to be considered is this : 

Can a school district lease or purchase a site for a school-house in 
the manner contemplated in the resolution before mentioned? 

By the 4th and 5th clauses of § 62, chap. 480, Laws of 1847, the inha- 
bitants of a district have power to designate a site for a district school- 
house, and to lay such tax on the taxable property of the district as the 
meeting shall deem sufficient to purchase or lease a suitable site for a 
school-house, and to build, hire or purchase such school-house and to 
keep in repair and furnish the same with the necessary fuel and appen- 
dages, and § 82 authorizes the trustees to carry such vote into effect. 

The word lease used here must be interpreted to mean a lease for a 
limited term, one, two or three years, of a lot of land and building to 
be used by the district till such time as a suitable site can be procured 
in fee, or the conveyance of a lot of land to the district to be the pro- 
perty of the district so long as it shall be occupied for a school-house 
site. 

Under the new constitution no agricultural land can be leased, for a 
longer period than twelve years, and although individuals in cities may 
still lease building lots for longer terms or in perpetuity, it is certainly 
desirable that land to be used as the site of a school-house should be 
free from any and every incumbrance. 

The statute confers no authority upon a school district to purchase 
land and give a mortgage or any other security for the consideration 
money. In the section authorizing the inhabitants to lease, authority 
is given to raise a tax for that purpose. It cannot be, therefore, that 
the authority to lease gives the inhabitants the privilege of voting that 
such a contract shall be entered into as will entail a perpetual debt upon 
the district and put the people to the necessity of raising a tax to pay 
the rent every year throughout all coming time. It has heretofore been 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 33 

held that the district could not purchase a site and give a mortgage for 
the purchase money, . one-half to be paid in five years, the balance in 
ten years. This department has also repeatedly held that districts could 
not be permitted to buy a site and erect a school-house upon land incum- 
bered by mortgage. 

No good reason can be given against permitting the district to give a 
mortgage for the purchase money of a site, which will not bear with 
equal force against permitting them to enter into a contract^ by which 
the site of the school may be subjected to a perpetual incumbrance. If 
a mortgage is given, the interest must be paid annually, and the princi- 
pal within some specified time. If a perpetual lease is given, the 
interest of the stipulated value of the land must be paid annually, but 
the principal cannot be paid at all except at the option of the lessor. 
The fact that the principal cannot be demanded, is not a sufficient reply 
to the objection, for tlie real difficulty is that the lien and incumbrance 
can only be removed with the consent of persons claiming the lien. 

What is this contract as contemplated in the resolution ? It is jusi 
this. The lots are assumed to be worth about $487. The present 
owners say that the district may have an unconditional title in fee 
conveyed to them at any time in ten years, on the payment of that sum 
and the interest annually, at 7 per cent. But if the |487 is not paid 
within ten years, then the owners may demand $500 or a $1000, or 
just such sum as they may think proper. 

A mortgage may be foreclosed, if interest and principal, or either, are 
not punctually paid, and the premises sold, but in that case the proceeds, 
after paying the debt and costs, are refunded to the mortgagor. 

If rent is not punctually paid, the landlord may reenter and take 
possession of the premises leased, together with all the improvements, 
nud may have judgment for costs. 

If, therefore, any incumbrance upon a school-house site is allowable, 
a mortgage would be preferable to a perpetual lease. 

The appeal is therefore sustained, and the resolution adopted by the 
meeting of the 27th March aforesaid is set aside and declared null and 
void. If the district need a new school-house, the site for it must be 
purchased, and a tax levied to pay for it. 

Per Morgan, July 6, 1848. 

In designating a site for a school-house, the description should be by metes and 
bounds, and the quantity of land should be stated, that every inhabitant 
of the district may be able to vote intelligently. 

At a special meeting held in District No. 6, Lansing, March 1, 1849, 
resolutions were passed to change the site of the school-house "to the 
first corner north of the road, on a piece of land owned by Mary 
Dickerson ;" to raise a tax to purchase the new site, and also a tax of 
$300 to build a school-house, &c. 

The notices for this meeting having been deficient and improperly 
given, another special meeting was called, to beheld March 15, 1849. 

[Digest.] 5 



34 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

At this last meeting, a resolution was passed confirming tlie proceedings 
of the meeting of the 1st of March. 

The principal point in the case is, that the site was not sufficiently 
designated. 

The resolution to move the site " to the first corner north on, the 
road," is too vague and indefinite, and cannot be regarded in law. It 
does not state wliether the trustees are authorized to purchase one-half 
acre or five acres on the corner, nor is the description of the land given 
sufiicient to give an idea of its location. 

In designating a site for a school-house, the description should be by 
metes and bounds, and the quantity of land should be given, that every 
inhabitant of the district may be able to vote intelligently. 
Per Morgan, April 18, 1849. 

When the trustees have contracted, to locate the school-house on any particular 
place upon the site, in the absence of any instructions from the district, this 
department will not interfere. 

Tlie trustees located a school-house a few feet less than four rods from 
the south line of their lot which is bounded on the highway. The 
appellants and a majority of the district desired to leave full four rods 
in front. The trustees, however, in the absence of any explicit instruc- 
tions or direction from the district, agreed upon the present location and 
entered into a contract with a builder who had commenced his work 
prior to any instructions from the district. The trustees having gone on, 
for aught that appears to the contrary, in good faith in the location of 
the house prior to any expression of the wishes of the district, and 
having entered into contracts and incurred liabilities in the prosecution 
of the work, it is deemed unwise and inexpedient to subject the district^ 
to the expense which must be incurred by a change in the location. 

The appeal is dismissed. 

Per A. G. Johnson, Dept. Supt., August 30, 1849. 

A majority of voters at a school district meeting may empower the trustees to 
purchase additional territory adjoining the school-house site, for the purpose 
of enlarging their grounds for school purposes. It is not a case of removal 
of site. 

. The only question involved in this appeal is whether the purchase of 
an additional quantity of land adjoining that on which the former school- 
house of the district had been erected, and which was burned down, 
rendering it necessary for the district to build a new one, and the re- 
building of the district school-house wholly or in part upon the new 
ground thus purchased, is such an act as requires the assent of two-thirds 
of the voters present at a district meeting called specially for the purpose 
under the provisions of § 1, No. 85, of the Laws relating to common 
schools. I do not doubt the legal right of a majority of the voters in 
any district meeting duly convened, to lay a tax upon their district to 
purchase ground additional to and adjoining a site already owned by the 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. B5 

district, if such ground be suitable for the purpose of the existing site, 
and tlie school, — such as play ground for the children, wood-house or 
other appendages. Nor could the certificate of the town superintendent 
be necessary to render such an act legal any more than for building a 
wood-house, or repairing the school-house. The district, as I under- 
stand the case, owned no more ground than was covered by the build- 
ings. Now what were the acts which the law intended to prohibit the 
mere majority from doing after a site had been purchased and a school- 
house built or purchased for the district while the same remained un- 
altered ? 

Certainly not to prevent the purchase of more ground immediately 
adjoining, if necessary, nor the erection of additional buildings thereon, 
if "the exigencies of the district required it for the accommodation of the 
school, or even the erection of a new house should it be necessary. 

These are acts which, in my judgment it is perfectly competent for 
the majority of the inhabitants of the district to perform, when assem- 
bled in a school district meeting. I cannot hold this to be such a 
change of site as comes within the provisions of the section above 
mentioned. 

Per N. S. Benton, July 10, 184G. 

The department will annul the certificate of a teacher for cruel and unreasonable 
discipline in the government of a school. 

Mr. Bly was employed as a teacher in District No. 7, Amity, by the 
trustees, on the 4th of December last, and soon afterwards commenced 
his school, under a certificate of qualification, granted by the town 
superintendent. From the statement of the respondents, in answer to 
the appeal, it appears " that much dissatisfaction prevailed in the dis- 
trict, on account of the severe, not to say outrageous manner pursued 
by the teacher in punishing the scholars." And on a visitation of the 
school on the day above referred to by the town and county supei'inten- 
dents, but twenty-eight out of fifty-eight children on the teacher's list 
were present. " The great part of the absentees, £bj acknowledged, had 
been driven from the school in consequence of his seve7'ity, &c. He also 
remarked to us, that ' if he could get rid of a few more, he thought he 
could govern the rest.' " 

The respondents further state, during the examination " the greatest 
confusion, insubordination and anarchy continued ;" that the teacher 
was informed at the close, and after the children had left, in the most 
tind and friendly manner that some method better calculated to pre- 
serve order in his school must be adopted, and he was advised to 
" address his pupils in a spirit of kindness, &c.," at which he evinced 
great anger, announced his intention " to adopt and persist in his own 
course, and to receive dictation from no man." The superintendents 
then informed him, that in their judgment the indiscriminate use of 
the rod was improper, that the " insubordinate conduct of his pupils 
was in a measure owing to his indiscriminate and severe use not of a 
rod, but of a bush about three-quarters of an inch in diameter, and three 



36 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

feet long, with several branches well twisted together," and that unless a 
reformation in this respect was promised, they should be under the 
necessity of depriving him of his certificate. 

This he peremptorily refused to do, and distinctly informed the 
superintendents that he should continue the same course of discipline he 
had adopted for the government of his school. Under these circum- 
stances, they deemed it their duty to annul his certificate. 

The practice of inflicting corporeal punishment upon scholars, in any 
case whatever, observes General Dix, has no sanction but usage. The 
superintendent is not prepared, in the present imperfect condition of educa- 
tional science, entirely to prohibit its use as a means of school discipline, 
but he will sustain town and county superintendents in every eff'ort to 
restrict it to the smallest possible compass consistent with the preserva- 
tion of order and government, and he will in no case tolerate the 
slightest abuse in the discretion conferred in this respect by usage, or 
otherwise, upon teachers. 

In this case the town and county superintendents were amply justi- 
fiable in annulling the certificate, and their proceedings are therefore 
confirmed, and the appeal dismissed. 

Per S. Young, February 1, 1844. 

Every contract made with teachers in our common schools necessarily includes 
the condition that the agreement cannot be binding for a longer period than 
teachers may hold certificates of qualification, and on the annulling of their 
certificates all claim for future services ceases. 

The appellant in the year 1845, had made a contract with the trus- 
tees of school District No. 10, in the town of Champion to teach the 
district school for a limited period, and at a stipulated price per month 
for his services ; and before the expiration of the term limited by the 
contract, on the 27th day of November, 1845, for causes satisfactory to 
that officer, the town superintendent annulled the certificate of qualifi- 
cation, which act was affirmed by the county superintendent. 

On appeal to the department, it was deemed advisable for the reasons 
stated in the decision then given, not to interfere with the acts of these 
officers, by a formal reversal of their decisions. 

The appellant claimed of the trustees of the district his wages, under 
his contract, for the unexpired term after the annulment of his certificate, 
as before mentioned, and those officers or a majority of them having 
refused payment he appealed to the county superintendent, who declined 
interfering on the ground that the appellant had no legal claim to com- 
pensation under his contract from the time his license as a teacher was 
annulled. And from this determination, the appellant has again appealed 
to this department. 

Every contract made by trustees with a teacher in our common 
schools necessarily includes the condition that the agreement cannot be 
binding upon them for a longer period than the teacher may hold a 
certificate of qualification. I do not mean by this that trustees cannot 
with a full knowledge of all the facts in regard to a want of license 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 37 

make a contract with an unlicensed teacher which will bind them per- 
sonalli/, but I do hold that this department cannot in the exercise of its 
rightful powers and jurisdiction be called upon to enforce a performance 
of iiTiy such contract. 

I assume that when the trustees made the contract with the appellant 
for his services as a teacher, both parties understood that the appellant 
had a proper license, and that the contract was to cease whenever he 
became legally disqualified as such, but if he be able to establish a 
different contract by competent proof then he must resort to another 
tribunal, for this department cannot afford him any relief. 

The decision of the county superintendent is affirmed and the appeal 
dismissed. 

Per N. S. Benton, July 13, 1846. 

A teacher employed under a contract, to teach by the month, specified as twenty- 
six days, is entitled to dismiss school every Saturday afternoon, or each alter- 
nate Saturday, according to the custom of the country, and the trustees have 
no right to withheld any portion of the amount due him for so doing. 

A contract was made between Mary Dwight and Jacob Harder, one 
of the trustees of District No. 1, Windsor, and part in Conklin, by 
which she was to teach the district school at three dollars a week for 
an indefinite time. 

The trustees dissenting on the 2 2d day of November, a new contract 
was made between said Mary Dwight and Jacob Harder, with the con- 
sent of the other trustee, Alanson Alden, by which she was to teach 
four months, at the rate of twelve dollars per month of twenty-six days. 

The said Mary Dwight taught from November 22, 184Y, to March 
21, 1848, inclusive, a period of one hundred and twenty-one days, 
deducting Sundays. She therefore taught four months of twenty-six 
days, according to contract. 

But it is alleged by Harder, that the said Mary agreed to teach 
Saturdays or lose those days. The said Mary denies this, and alleges 
that "Saturdays" were not mentioned when the contract was made. 
The affidavit of Jared N. Hoadley, confirms the allegations of said 
Mary Dwight. Hoadley swears that Mary Dwight agreed to teach 
twenty-six days for $12, on condition that she taught four months. 

Hoadley's affidavit proves a contract by the month, at $12. Such a 
contract would authorize the teacher to dismiss her school every holiday 
and Saturday afternoon, or every alternate Saturday, according to the 
custom of the district. And the custom of dismissing school every 
Saturday afternoon or every alternate Saturday, is a good and wholesome 
one. 

The amount withheld by the trustees from Mary Dwight is $3.11. 

It is adjudged and decreed that said Mary is entitled to receive from 
said trustees said sum of $3.11, in addition to the sum of $44.89 already 
paid to her, and the trustees are hereby ordered to pay the same to her 
forthwith. 

Per Morgan, June 7, 1848. 



38 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

A teacher can only be employed by the trustees. Therefore a vote taken at a 
district meeting to dismiss a teacher and substitute another in her place, is 
illegal and void. 

Samuel T. Peck and James Smith, two of tlie trustees of District 
No. 1, Livingston, hired Miss Susannah Smith to teach their vpinter 
school, to commence November 30th, 1848. Mr. Lament, the other 
trustee, was consulted, but did not consent to the contract. 

Miss Smith commenced the school in the school-house of the district, 
at the stipulated time. 

Mr. Lament not being satisfied with the agreement of the other trus- 
tees, hired Miss Horford to teach a school in another room. 

At a special meeting held in the district, January 20th, 1849, for the 
purpose of voting a tax to repair the school-house, and for other pur- 
poses, a vote was taken and carried to substitute Miss Horford in the 
school-house, as teacher, in place of Miss Smith. 

From this proceeding the two trustees appeal. 

In employing teachers, the trustees should consult, as far as possible, 
the wishes of the inhabitants of the district. But when the trustees 
have contracted with a teacher, thereby binding themselves and the 
district, the inhabitants cannot free themselves from the obligations thus 
imposed by the official acts of the trustees. 

Teachers can be employed only by trustees. 

A contract made by two trustees, the third being consulted, is valid; 
but one trustee can perform no official act, without the concurrence of 
at least another, and a consultation with both. 

In this case. Miss Smith was legally employed as the teacher for the 
district, and could not be dismissed except by the trustees. Therefore 
the proceedings of the district meeting on the 20th January, to dismiss 
Miss Smith and substitute Miss Horford as teacher, were illegal and 
void, and Miss Horford is not entitled to receive any of the public 
money or to continue her instruction in the district school-house. 
Appeal sustained. 

Per Morgan, March 17, 1849. 

When an inhabitant moves from one school district into another for the purpose 
of avoiding an enumeration of his children in the former district, and imme- 
diately after the enumeration moves back, the town superintendent should 
apportion the money drawn on account of his children to the former district. 

In this case the appellants transferred their residence from Joint Dis- 
trict No. 3, Cherry Creek and Ellington, where they have for several 
years resided, to District No. 1 in Cherry Creek, on the 30tli of Decem- 
ber last, with the obvious intention and design of having their children 
enumerated in the latter district, where they generally attend school, 
owing to some difficulties existing in District No. 3. On the 1st of 
January, both the appellants returned to their former residences in the 
latter district where they have since remained, and which is their per 
manent residence. 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 39 

The town superintendent under these circumstances very properly- 
refused to sanction the fraudulent attempt to evade the spirit and intent 
of the law, and apportioned the money drawn on account of their chil- 
dren to District No. 3. In this he has been sustained by the county 
superintendent whose decision must be affirmed. 

Per S. Young, April 10, 1844. 

A mortgage given to secure the purchase money of real estate, is subject to tax- 
ation in the district where the mortgagee resides. 

From the statements of the county superintendent in this case it 
appears that on the 12th of March last, a tax was voted in District No. 8, 
in which the appellant resides, for the purpose of erecting a school- 
house, which was duly assessed on the taxable inhabitants, according to 
law by the trustees on the 23fl of the same month. At the time of voting 
the tax the appellant was the owner of a farm in the district, which was 
leased to a tenant whose term expired on the 1st of April subsequently. 
On or about the 18th of March intermediate the voting, and the assess- 
ment of the tax, he sold the farm to a non-resident of the district and 
took a mortgage for the purchase money, stipulating to give possession 
on the expiration of the lease, from which period interest on the amount 
secured to be paid by the mortgage was to commence. The principal 
question involved in the appeal is as to the right of the trustees to tax 
the appellant for the amount secured to be paid as the purchase money 
of the farm sold by him. The county superintendent decided that the 
trustees were legally authorized to include the amount in their tax list, 
under the head of personal property, from which decision the present 
appeal is brought. Tlie rule of law in this respect, has been correctly 
stated by the county superintendent. It is that where a farm is sold the 
vendor remaining in the district is taxable for the avails of such sale as 
personal property, whether such avails are in the shape of money or 
securities for its payment, while the purchaser or his agent, whether 
resident or non-resident is taxable for the real estate. In the present 
case the farm of the appellant had been sold and a mortgage executed 
for the purchase money prior to the assessment of the tax previously 
voted ; and in accordance with the principle above laid down, the appel- 
lant was clearly taxable for such purchase money as personal estate and 
the purchaser as the non-resident owner of the real estate. Nor can this 
principle be in any respect affected by the arrangement between the 
parties relative to the period when possession was to be taken or interest 
to commence running on the mortgage. 

Per S. Young, December 4, 1844. 

It is the duty of the trustees in laying a tax to assess the same against every 
jiersoti within the district who owns or is in possession of taxable property 
at the time of making out such tax list. 

On the 3d day of February, Mr. Hoyt sold all nis real estate in said 
district to William Moreau, and executed and delivered a deed to him. 



40 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

Mr. Hoyt remains in possession and by the contract will remain in pos- 
session till April 1, 1848. February 15, 1848, the trustees of the district 
proceeded to make out a tax list upon a tax voted January 15, 1848, to 
build a school-house. They with a full knowledge of the above sale and 
conveyance assessed Mr. Hoyt with the farm and real estate so sold. 

Mr. Hoyt claims that the land should have been assessed to Mr. 
Moreau. 

The trustees were right. By § 85, chap. 480, Laws of 184V, the 
trustees are required to apportion a tax upon " all the taxable inhabi- 
tants holding property in the district, according to the valuations of the 
taxable property which shall be owned or possessed by them at the time 
of making out such list." Mr. Hoyt, at the time of making out the list, 
had not given up possession and must be considered the possessor. 

It is to be presumed, that the purchase money is not to be paid until 
possession is delivered, in which ' case the trustees could not assess the 
price of the farm to Mr. Hoyt as personal property. The appeal is 
dismissed. 

Per Morgan, March 18, 1848. 

Contiguous territory lying partly in two or more districts, occupied and cultivated 
as one farm is taxable in the district in which the occupant resides. 

The facts in this case as submitted are as follows : 

Whitman was the owner and occupant of a farm in District No. 1 2, 
but recently purchased another lot of land contiguous to his farm and 
lying in District No. 2, and removed his residence to District No. 2. 

Whitman, residing in No. 2, is taxable in No. 2, for all the land he 
occupies and cultivates which is composed of contiguous territory. 

The farm lying in No. 12, on which he formerly resided lying conti- 
guous to the farm upon which he now resides in No. 2, and both farms 
being occupied by him, is taxable in No. 2 and not in No. 12. 

But the tenant of Whitman is a resident of No. 12, and must be taxed 
there, for the house and garden occupied by him. 

Per Morgan, June 7, 1848. 

Where a tax payer voluntarily moves from one district to another he is liable to a 
tax for building a school-house in the latter district, even if within four years 
he has paid a tax for that purpose in the district from which he removes. 

Benjamin Mix, the petitioner, owns a farm partly situated in District 
No. 16, and partly in No. 10, Gouverneur, St. Lawrence county. Until 
last August he lived within the bounds of No. 16, but at that time he 
moved into district No. 10. While a resident of No. 16, he contributed 
his share of the expense of building a school-house in that district. 
This was about eight years since. 

The inhabitants of No. 10, have recently raised a tax to build a new 
school-house and have included the farm of Mr. Mix in their tax list 
He wishes to be released from the payment of the tax. 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 41 

This petition must be denied becanse the law exempts only those who 
have been set off from another district without their consent within four 
years from the payment of a tax for building a school-house. 

Mr. Mix voluntarily moved from No. 16 to No. 10, and moreover 
upwards of four years have elapsed since he was taxed for building a 
school-house, so that he cannot claim exemption on either ground. 

The petition is dismissed. 

Per A. G. Johnson, Dept. Supt., August 7, 1848. 

In levying a tax for the purchase of a school-house site, the district is not 

limited as to the amount to be raised. 
The certificate of the town superintendent is not necessary, and the district may 

by a majority vote raise such an amount as shall be necessary for the purpose. 

At a special meeting of the inhabitants of District No. 5, Troy, held 
July 20, 1848, a site for a school-house was designated and a tax of four 
hundred and seventy-five dollars was voted to pay for the same. The 
site thus designated was for the second school-house in the district. 

The appellant desires that the proceedings be set aside for the follow- 
ing reasons : 

1. Because the commissioners did not certify that a larger sum than 
four hundred dollars was necessary to purchase the site. 

2. On the ground of expediency. 

By sub. 8, § 62 School Laws, provision is made for designating sites 
for two or more school-houses in a district. 

With the consent of the town superintendent (or the commissioners, 
as in this case) the inhabitants of a district, when legally assembled, 
may by a majority of votes of the legal voters present, designate a site 
for the second school-house in their district and may lay a tax upon the 
taxable property of the district to purchase such site. The limitation 
to four hundred dollars does not apply to such cases. The section which 
requires the consent of the town superintendent to raise a larger sum 
only applies " to building, hiring or purchasing a school-house." (See 
§ VO, School Laws.) 

The proceedings of the meeting of July 20, were legal. 

As to the question of expediency this department does not feel at 
liberty to interfere without proof of palpable wrong, or abuse of power, 
which does not appear in this case. 

This decision is not intended to favor the abandonment of the old site. 

The appeal dismissed. 

Per Morgan, September 26, 1848. 

It is the duty of the trustees to expend the library money on or before the 1st 

day of October of the j^ear in which it is received. 
Library money can in no case be expended for teachers' wages without permission 

of the State Superintendent. 

This is an appeal from the 'proceedings of a special meeting of the 
inhabitants of School District No. 4 in the town of Danube, Herkimer 
county, held December 31, 1847, pursuant to notice. 

[Digest.! G 



42 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

At said meeting it was 

Resolved^ unanimously, tliat the amount of library money now on hand 
(19.58) be appropriated for the payment of teachers' wages for the pre-^ 
sent term. 

Resolved, By a majority, by a vote of eight to four, that one-half of 
the school library money which will be allotted to the district the coming 
year, be appropriated to the winter term, and the remaining half to the 
summer term for the payment of teachers' wages. 

The trustees ought to have expended the $9.58 of library money on 
or before the 1st day of October last. Not having done so, the town 
superintendent must withhold from their district the said sum of $9.58, 
and also the appropriation of library money for the coming year. 

The first resolution appropriates money which the town superinten- 
dent cannot legally pay over to the trustees or their order ; it is there- 
fore nugatory. 

The second resolution is null and void, for two reasons : 1st. By 
reason of not having expended the last year's appropriation of library 
money on or before October 1, 1847, the district is not entitled to any 
future appropriation, except with the leave of this department ; 2d. 
Because the law of December 15, 1847, which took effect January 5, 
1848, provides that library money shall not hereafter be expended for 
teachers' wages in any case, without the previous approbation of the 
State Superintendent. 

Therefore the proceedings of said district are hereby annulled. 
Per Morgan, January 20, 1848. 

A motion put to vote by any person other than the chairman of the meeting, is 

irregular and void. 
The inhabitants of a district have no power to dissolve or annul tlie district. 

The first meeting in District No. 9, Lloyd, Ulster county, was held 
August 23, 1848, at which the following proceedings were had : 

A chairman and clerk, pro tern., were chosen. The officers of the dis- 
trict were elected, and a site* for the school-house designated. During 
these proceedings some difficulties arose upon questions of order. 

A motion was made and seconded, that the meeting declare the 
district to be annulled, which the chairman refused to put, when the 
mover called for the ayes and noes, and declared the motion to be 
carried. 

A motion was then made to adjourn, but not being seconded the 
chairman refused to put it to vote. 

The mover called the ayes, and declared the meeting adjourned, 
whereupon many withdrew. 

The meeting continued its organization, and transacted business after 
the withdrawal of some of the inhabitants. 

The appellant desires that the proceedings of the meeting held after 
the luotion to adjourn was made, be declared void. 

The motion to dissolve the district was entirely out of order, as it 
was upon a question over which the district had no control. A motion 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 43 

to adjourn cannot be put to vote until it is seconded. The chairman 
was therefore correct in refusing to put to vote either of these motions. 

A motion put to vote by any other person than the chairman of the 
meeting, is void. 

The appeal is dismissed, and the proceedings of the meeting con- 
firmed. 

Per Morgan, December 22, 1848. 

If the trustees of a school district refuse to levy a tax, in pursuance of chap. 214, 
of Laws of 1847, to pay costs of school district officers, who have sued or 
been sued in the discharge of their official duties, this department cannot 
interfere. 

The proper remedy is an application to the supreme court for a mandamus. 

The trustees of District No. 1, De Kalb and Canton, refuse to levy a 
tax of f 115. 73, as directed by chap. 214, Laws of 1847, to remunerate 
the appellants for costs and expenses incurred by them as former 
trustees of the district. 

An appeal is taken to this department. 

The superintendent is of opinion that this appeal cannot be enter- 
tained. The proper remedy of the appellants under the act referred to 
is by application to the supreme court for a mandamus. 
Per Morgan, January 4, 1850. 

A notice given by the district clerk for a meeting is legal, though the directions 
of the trustees to the clerk to give such notice were verbal. 

A special meeting was held in District No. 5, Lisbon, St. Lawrence 
county, December 30, 1848, pursuant to a notice given by the clerk for 
the purpose, and the site of the school-house was voted to be changed. 

The appellants object to the proceedings of the meeting. 

Because the notices of the meeting by the district clerk were upon 
the verbal direction of the trustees. 

If the district clerk gives the proper notices for a special meeting the 
proceedings of that meeting will not be held to be illegal, although the 
trustees may have given the clerk only a verbal direction to give the 
notices. 

The proceedings of the meeting therefore are legal and regular. 

Appeal dismissed. 

Per Morgan, March 6, 1849. 

The clerk of a district has no power to authorize any person to give notices for 
a district, or to do any other act. 

The trustees of District No. 14, Lockport, called a special meeting, to 
be held on the 22d day of March, 1849, and directed the clerk of the 
district to give the proper notices. 

Most of the notices were given by a son of the clerk. The meeting 
held in pursuance of such notice is alleged to be illegal. 



44 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

It is tlie duty of the district clerk to give all notices for school 
meetings in his district, and in case of his refusal or of a vacancy in 
the office of clerk, a trustee may give them. 

But the clerk of the district has no power to authorize any other 
person to give the notices or to perform any other duties of his office. 
The tovs^n superintendent only can, in certain cases, authorize any 
inhabitant of the district to give notices of special meetings. 

The appeal is sustained, and the proceedings of the meeting are 
declared illegal and void. 

Per Morgan, April 7, 1849. 



When the trustees make any change in the valuation of property, differing from 
the valuation, as appears hy the assessment roll, they should give twenty 
days' notice of the changes they have made to the inhabitants of the district 
aflected thereby. 

The appellant in this case represents that on or about the 2d of 
March last, a tax was voted for the support of schools at a special 
meeting called and held in District No. 1, under the provisions of the 
new school law ; and that the trustees, in apportioning the tax thus 
voted, altered the valuations of the taxable property of the district from 
the assessment roll of the town in several instances specified by the 
appellant, and among others, in his own case, without giving the notice* 
prescribed by law, in consequence of which a larger sum has been 
assessed to him and others than was equitable and just. 

The trustees in their answer, do not deny the charge that a departure 
from the last assessment roll of the town, was made by them in ascer- 
taining the valuation of the taxable property referred to, without giving 
the notice prescribed by law, but claim that the valuations put by them 
on such property were substantially correct, and in accordance with the 
standard adopted by the assessor. 

The supei'intendent is of opinion that the defense thus set up by the 
trustees, is invalid and untenable. The law specifically requires that 
in all cases where the valuations of taxable property cannot be ascer- 
tained from the last assessment roll of the town, the trustees shall 
ascertain the same from the best means of information within their 
power, giving notice to all persons interested, and proceeding in the 
same way that town assessors are required to pi'oceed in the first 
instance. Unless therefore this requisition is strictly complied with, 
the assessment thus made by the trustees is illegal and invalid, what- 
ever may be the standard of valuation adopted by them, or whether 
such valuations are just and equitable or not. 

The persons interested in such alteration were entitled to notice in 
the mode prescribed by law, and to an opportunity of appearing before 
the trustees, and claiming a reduction of their assessments as so ascer- 
tained ; and they may legally avail themselves of the omission to give 
such notice, either to resist the collection of the tax thus illegally 
imposed, or to bring an appeal to this department for such redress as 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 43 

may be in its power to afford. The tax list being void in part, is void 
throughout. 

It is accordingly hereby ordered that the tax list made out by the 
trustees of District No. 1, in the town of Fowler, in pursuance of the 
vote of the special meeting held in said district be and the same is 
hereby set aside, and the trustees are directed, and required within thirty 
days from the date hereof to make out a new tax list in accordance with 
law, and to deliver the same with their warrant annexed, to the collec- 
tor of the district for collection, refunding if required any amount here 
tofore illegally collected. 

Per Morgan, June 4, 1850. 

A. resident of a district is not responsible for the tuition of a non-resident pupil 
who simply boards with the former, unless the trustees notify him at the 
commencement of the school that he will be held responsible for the tuition. 

In this case the appellant represents that the trustees have charged 
him eighty-two cents for the tuition of Erastus Hibbard, the son of a 
non-resident of the district, and who was a mere boarder in his house ; 
and he alleges in express terms, that he did not send him to the school 
nor engage to pay his tuition,, and that he had no control or jurisdiction 
over him. No answer has been put in by the trustees, although a copy 
of the appeal duly verified was served upon one of their number on the 
28th of April last. The statement of the appellant therefore must be 
taken to be true, and under such circumstances he cannot be regarded 
as legally liable for the tuition of the boy. If the trustees had design- 
ed to hold him responsible, it was their duty to have apprized him of 
the fact at the commencement of the term. Not having done so they 
must look to the father of the boy. 

It is therefore ordered that the trustees strike from the rate bill the 
charge against the appellant for the tuition of Erastus Hibbard. 
Per Morgan, May 18, 1849. 

A person elected as a librarian of a school district cannot be displaced except by 
a direct prccedure on the part of some competent legal authority, on infor- 
mation in the nature of " quo warranto" or on appeal from the election, even 
though the incumbent be an infant. 

This was an appeal originally brought to the county superintendent 
of Saratoga, from the refusal of the trustees to deliver over to the charge 
of the appellant the library of the district, he having been chosen unani- 
mously as librarian at the annual meeting of the district, on the first 
Monday in October last. In their answer to the appeal the trustees place 
their refusal upon the ground that the appellant is a minor and could not 
therefore execute a valid bond for the preservation and safe-keeping of 
the books belonging to the district library. Tlie county superintendent 
very properly overruled this defense, holding that the appellant though 
ineligible must be recognized as the librarian '■'■ de facto''' of the district 
so far as the public and third persons are concerned and that his right to 



46 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

the ofBce could not be tried in this indirect way. No principle of law is 
better settled than that the actual incumbent of an office holding under 
color of a legal election or appointment can be displaced only by a 
direct procedure on the part of some competent legal authority on in- 
formation in the nature of a quo warranto or otherwise ; and that his 
acts so far as the public are concerned, will be recognized as valid and 
legal to all intents and purposes while he continues to execute the office 
under claim of title. In this case the appellant was unanimously elected 
librarian of the district, notwithstanding his admitted ineligibility, and 
it does not rest with the trustees to deprive him of the office in this in- 
direct mode. They might have appealed from such election, placing 
their appeal expressly upon the ground of his ineligibility, and the 
county superintendent might have set aside the election and ordered a 
new meeting to fill the vacancy. But not having resorted to this remedy, 
they cannot refuse to deliver over to him the library of the district on 
the ground of such ineligibility ; nor are they warranted in assuming 
that the property of the district will be unsafe in his hands on the 
ground of his want of responsibility. They may remove him from office 
whenever he willfully disobeys theii* directions in any matter relative to 
the preservation of the books and appurtenances of the library or for 
any willful neglect of duty, &c., &c. But they cannot refuse to recog- 
nize him as the legally elected librarian of the district. 

They are therefore hereby directed to deliver the library of the dis- 
trict into his hands, and the decision of the county superintendent is 
hereby affirmed. 

Per Young, January 20, 1845. 

It is a rule of this department, that all acts of school district officers will be 
regarded as regular, unless duly appealed from. 

This appeal is brought from the proceedings of a special meeting 
held in District No. 9,' Preble and Scott, August 5, 1848, for the pur- 
pose of receiving the report of Elam Dunbar, as trustee of said district, 
the said Dunbar having resigned his office in December, 1847. 

It is immaterial whether the meeting of August 5, 1848, which 
received and accepted the report of Mr. Dunbar, was regular or not. 
His report and the complaints made against him were of acts previous 
to the meeting of December, 184*7, at which he resigned, and at which 
his report should have been made and accepted. 

It is a rule of this department, that all acts and proceeding of school 
officers will be regarded regular, unless duly appealed from. Whatever 
therefore may have been the neglect of duty of Mr. Dunbar, while in 
office, provided he has not rendered himself liable by squandering or 
losing moneys belonging to the district, he will be regarded as having 
discharged his duties faithfully. 

Appeal dismissed. 

Per Morgan, January 24, 1849. 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 4? 

Where a trustee is elected to the office of supervisor, the term of his trusteeship 
is in no wise affected thereby. 

In October, 1846, Matthew Brown was chosen trustee of District 
No. 11, Bethel, for a full term of three years. In the spring of 1848, 
he was elected supervisor of the town. It being supposed that his 
office of trustee became vacant by accepting the office of supervisor, 
Mr. Thomas C. Horton was elected to fill the supposed vacancy in 
October, 1848. 

The law which existed previous to the time the present law took 
effect, prohibited the supervisor of a town from holding the office of 
trustee. The present law, however, does not contain such a prohibition. 
The election of Mr. Brown did not therefore affect his tenure of the 
office of trustee. He is the legal trustee, and the election of Mr. Horton 
in his stead was irregular. 

Per Morgan, April 10, 1849. 

This department will, on proper application, direct an increased proportion of 
the public money to be applied to reduce the rate bill, to be made out at 
the close of the term, where the inhabitants or any considerable portion of 
them withdraw their support from a teacher duly qualified, without good 
cause. 

The principle has been repeatedly recognized by this department, 
that when the inhabitants of a school district or any considerable por- 
tion of them withdraw their support from a teacher duly employed by 
the trustees, and suitably qualified, without any justifiable cause, leaving 
those who continue to send to the school, to defray the principal burden 
of the expense, an increased proportion of the public money, appli- 
cable to the payment of teachers' wages, will, on a proper application, 
be directed to be applied in diminution of such expense, on the rate 
bill to be made out at the close of the term. In this case several of 
the inhabitants withdrew their children from the school, and sent them 
to a private school established in the neighborhood, for no other reason, 
so far as appears from the testimony, than that arising from the price 
contracted by the trustees to be paid for the teacher's services, which was 
$14 per month. It is in evidence that he held a certificate of qualification 
in due form ; that he sustained a good examination and taught a good 
school ; and in the absence of any well founded objection to the charac- 
ter or quahfications of the teacher, it was incumbent upon the inhabi- 
tants to sustain the school during the term for which he was employed. 
Two-thirds of the children usually in attendance were withdrawn from the 
school, and the rate bills as to those who continued to send were exorbi- 
tantly increased, and justice and equity require that the superintendent 
should relieve them from this hardship. 

The decision of the county superintendent, directing five-sixths of 
the public money to be applied to the support of the winter school, is 
accordingly .hereby aflSrmed, and the appeal dismissed. 

Per N. S. Benton, October 15, 1845. 



48 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 



Trustees in the absence of express directions from the district, may, in their dis- 
cretion, apply the public money for the support of schools as they may deem 
proper, but when they apply more than (f) two-thirds thereof for the sup- 
port of the winter school, the Superintendent of Public Instruction will 
interfere. 

It seems that the trustees applied more than two-thirds of the public 
money for the support of the winter school in 1846, leaving the balance 
for the summer school. In the absence of any express direction on the 
part of the district, the trustees have a legal right in their discretion to 
apply the public money as they may deem proper, which discretion will 
always be controlled by the department, when those officers apply more 
than two-thirds of the public money to the winter schools, leaving the 
balance for the summer schools. The act which should have been 
appealed from, was the payment of nearly all the public money towards 
the support of the winter school in 1846. The trustees having the 
strict legal right to do as they have, and no legal steps having been 
taken to correct it (more than thirty days having elapsed before the 
bringing of the appeal), as a legal consequence they are bound to make 
out their rate bill in accordance with their former acts, that is, apply 
the residue of the public money to the summer school, and make out 
their rate bill for the balance. 

Per N. S. Benton, April 8, 1847. 

The public money apportioned for one year cannot be applied to the payment of 
teachers' wages of a previous year, except when a term embraces a portion 
of two years, in which case the public money of either year may be applied 
indiscriminately to that term. 

The appellees (two of the trustees) gave an order upon the town 
superintendent of Hoosick for $10 to be paid out of the apportion- 
ment of public money for 1849, in favor of the teacher for the summer 
term of 1848. The public money apportioned for one year cannot be 
applied to the expenses of a previous year, except when the term 
embraces a portion of two years; in which case the public money of either 
year may be applied indiscriminately to that term. 

The trustees could not legally apply any of the apportionment for 
1849, to the payment of the teacher of the summer of 1848. 

The appeal is sustained. 

Per Morgan, April 3, 1849. 

Trustees have no power to provide by the same rate bill, for the compensation of 
teachers for different terms of instruction. 

This appeal presents the question whether the wages of the same 
teacher, employed for different terms, but at the same rate of compen- 
sntion can be legally included in the same rate bill, treating the two 
periods as one term, and assessing the balance of the teacher's wages 
after applying a portion of the public money thereto, upon the inhabi- 
tants sending to school. 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 49 

« 

Superintendent Dix held, in a similar case, that it was wholly inad- 
missible to provide by the same rate bill for the compensation of two 
teachers for different terms of instruction. ( See Common School Deci- 
sions, p. 165.) This decision is in strict accordance with the letter 
and spirit of the school act, and conformable to principles of equity. 
No rule of legal or equitable right calls for or can sanction the imposition 
of a tax or burthen upon any individual school district inhabitant unless 
he shall have voluntarily placed himself in a condition to have that 
burthen or tax imposed according to the express terms of the law, under 
which the school district officers act. 

Per Morgan, July 22, 1849. 

A rate bill cannot be legally made out for any other purpose than teachers' wages 
and for fuel. 

The trustees of District No. 6, Cameron, hired a teacher in the winter 
of 1847-8 for three months. He taught about two months, when he 
discontinued his school which was not opened again during the winter. 
The teacher was paid twenty dollars of public money, the balance re- 
maining unpaid. Sometime in November, 1848, the trustees made out 
a rate bill for the amount remaining unpaid, and included in it a tax for 
fiiel, and also a tax for sundries, amounting to $3.00. 

It is objected that the tax of $3.00 cannot legally be included in a 
rate bill. The objection is well taken. A rate bill can be made out for 
no other purpose than for teachers' wages, and for fuel. The trustees 
could not, therefere, legally include the tax of $3.00 in the rate bill. 

Per Morgan, March 5, 1849. 

An inhabitant cannot gain a residence in another district by taking a portion of 
his family with himself thereto, so as to send his children to school therein. 

The following statement of facts is submitted by the parties : 

Barclay Miller owns a farm in District No. 5, upon which he lived 
till the spring of 1847, when he removed to another farm in District 
No. 12, leaving his son in the occupancy of the farm in No. 5. 

On or about the 25th of November, 1848, a district school was com- 
menced in No. 5, to which Mr. Barclay Miller sent part of his children. 
Upon the representation of the teacher that the school was already too 
large, the trustees directed him to dismiss Mr. Miller's children from 
school. 

Whereupon Mr. Miller came with his children and a part of his fur- 
niture to his son's house in No. 5, leaving his wife at his house in No. 
12. His son went to the farm in No. 12, but left his wife at the house 
in No. 5. Mr. Barclay Miller has, since this arrangement, sometimes 
lodged at his house in No. 12, and his son has also occasionally lodged 
at the house in No. 5. Barclay Miller took with him to No. 5, his 
horses and milch cows, but had stock on both farms, and has since killed 
his hogs at the house in No. 12, and there packed the pork. 

Under this statement of facts Barclay Miller cannot claim to be a 
resident of District No. 5. The trustees have power to dismiss his 

•^Digest.] Y 



50 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

cliildren from tlie school, or if they permit them to attend, they are nol 
entitled to share in the public money of the district, nor can they be 
lawfully enumerated, as children residing in the district. Mr. Miller is 
a resident of No. 12, and his children must be there enumerated. 
Per Morgan, January 11, 1849. 

AVhere the inhabitants at a district meeting direct the trustees to do an act which 
they are authorized by law to direct, as the removal of a school-house, the 
trustees may levy a tax to defray the expense, without a vote of the district. 

The inhabitants of District No. lY, town of Wilna, voted a new site 
for the school-house, and directed the trustees to move the house by 
a "bee." 

The trustees made a " bee," but there not being much of a " turn out" 
on the part of the inhabitants, they were only able to get the school- 
house into the highway. Foreseeing the difficulty attending the removal 
l)y such means, and not receiving the requisite aid, the trustees moved 
the school-house to the site selected at an expense of |25.00 

A special meeting was called on the 4th December, 184Y, without 
stating the object of it in the notices, at which a tax was voted to meet 
the expenses of the trustees. Only four legal voters were present at the 
meeting. 

The vote directing the trustees to move the house by a "bee" was 
void, as they could have no authority over voluntary aid, and could not 
depend upon it as a means of moving the school-house. 

When the inhabitants of a district direct the trustees to perform a 
^York where expenses are to be incurred, the trustees are authorized to 
r;iise the amount thereof, by tax, without a vote of the district. In this 
case the trustees would necessarily incur an expense in moving the 
school-house, which is chargeable to the district and can be collected by 
tax the same as if it were voted. (School Laws, No. 134.) And although 
the vote of December 4, 1847, to raise the tax was illegal on account 
of the want of proper notice, the levying of the tax was legal on the 
gTOund that the trustees possessed the requisite power, without a vote 
of the district to raise the tax. 

The appeal is dismissed. 

Per A. G. Johnson, Dept. Supt., August 3, 1848. 

In the alteration or formation of school districts, out of territory lying in two or 
more towns, the order making the same must show that the town superin- 
tendents of the respective towns united in making the order. 

It appears from the papers transmitted to the department in this case 
by the county superintendent, that the order for the transfer of Mr. 
Safford from Joint District, No. 6, in Essex and Westport, to District 
No. 8, of the former town, was made by the town superintendent of 
Essex alone, without the presence and concurrence of the superintend- 
ent of Westport. 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 51 

It is true that it is alleged by the superintendent of Essex, in his 
answer to the appeal, that the alteration was made with the " concur- 
rence of the town superintendent of Westport," but the order, a copy 
of which is appended to the appeal, purports to be made by the super- 
intendent of Essex alone, and no reference whatever is made to the 
superintendent of Westport, and by the uniform decisions of the depart- 
ment, no alteration of a district can be legally made, except by the 
action of a joint board, consisting of the requisite authority of the 
several towns, from parts of which such joint district is composed. 
Neither the previous nor subsequent concurrence, formally or informally, 
of the representatives of either town to such alteration, can supply the 
defect arising from their absence at the time of making the order. 
They must meet and constitute a board, otherwise the proceedings are 
void. 

This objection appearing in this case upon the papers, must be 
regarded as fatal to the validity of the order appealed from, and the 
decision of the county superintendent must be reversed. 
Per S. Young, August 6, 1844. 

When a trustee is absent from a district, so as to be unable to act with his asso- 
ciates, the town superintendent, on the application of the other trustees, will 
appoint a successor. 

Some time in the month of September last, Mr. Gilbert, who had 
been elected a trustee of District No. 9, visited the western part of the 
state, in company with his wife, whose parents resided there, for the 
benefit of her health. Leaving her, he returned, harvested his crops, 
and early in October again left, with the avowed intention of remaining 
until the ensuing spring. The other two trustees being unable to agree 
in the management of the affairs of the district, and the employment 
of a teacher for the winter term, applied to the town superintendent to 
fill the vacancy which they supposed to exist in the district, in order to 
enable them to organize the winter school. 

For all practical purposes, it is evident that a proper case for the 
action of the town superintendent was presented ; Mr. Gilbert indeed 
may not have lost his legal rights as a resident of the district, but he 
had, at all events, ceased to be an inhabitant, and had expressly avowed 
his intention not to return to the district until the ensuing spring. 

The department is disposed to coincide with the county superinten- 
dent in the opinion that an actual vacancy existed, created, if not by 
" removal from the district," in the legal acceptation of the term, by 
a virtual " refusal to serve," or incapacity to act, and that the interpo- 
sition of the town superintendent, by the appointment of a trustee in 
his place, was legal. 

Per S. Young, December 26, 1846. 



52 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

Where trustees have employed a teacher for a certain period, and before the expi- 
ration thereof, they agree with him to continue for a month longer, the inha- 
bitants sending to the school during the original term are not liable for any 
portion of the teacher's wages for the additional month, unless they send to 
the school during that time. 

In such case the trustees should make out separate rate bills. 

The facts in tliis case are substantially as follows : The trustees hired 
a teacher for the term of four months at a specified compensation. Sub- 
sequently and prior to the expiration of the term, they contracted with 
the teacher to continue in the school for an additional month ; contrary, 
however, to the expressed wishes of a large majority of the inhabitants 
of the district and patrons of the school. Of twenty individuals who 
had sent during the term of four months, only eight continued to send 
during the additional month. 

In making out their rate bill, the trustees, after deducting the public 
money applicable to the term, charged the aggregate balance due the 
teacher for the whole five months upon all the inhabitants who had sent 
to the school during any portion of that time, in proportion to the 
number of days and the number of children sent. The appellants being 
of the opinion that those who had not sent, during the last month ought 
not to pay any portion of the wages of the teacher accruing in that 
month, and that two separate rate bills should be made out, the one for 
the original tei-m of four months and the other for the supplementary 
term, brought the case before the county superintendent, who held that 
one rate bill only was necessary for the whole five months ; that the 
second contract was a mere extension or prolongation of the first ; and 
that the trustees being legally competent so to extend or modify the 
original contract with the assent of the teacher, the entire term must 
be regarded as one and indivisible. From this decision an appeal has 
been taken to this department. 

In the opinion of the present superintendent, the view thus taken of 
the eff'ect of the agreement, made with the teacher by the trustees, is 
erroneous, so far at least as the rights of the inhabitants interested in 
the rate bill are concerned ; as between trustees and teacher the transac- 
tion may perhaps' admit of the construction contended for by the 
county superintendent. But the inhabitants of the district sending to 
school, had, it seems to me, a clear right to regard the original term 
for which the teacher was hired, as closed at the expiration of four 
months, and to insist upon the rate bills being made out for that term, 
reserving to themselves the option of continuing to send to school for 
the additional month or not. They signified their wishes to this eff'ect 
to the trustees, prior to the expiration of the four months. If it is in 
the power of trustees so to enlarge or prolong a contract made for a 
specified term, to extend the liability of the inhabitants sending to 
school, and that against the express wishes of the district, where is the 
limitation of this power? The contract to hire for the additional 
month, must, as between the parties to this appeal, be regarded as a 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 63 

new and independent contract, and the trustees are hereby directed to 
make out their rate bill accordingly. 

Per N. S. Benton, March 13, 1845. 

When a trustee is unable to discharge his duty as such trustee, by reason of 
imprisonment, the town superintendent may appoint his successor after the 
expiration of thirty days from the time of such imprisonment. 

Tlie facts of this case appear to be as follows : 

Some three or four months previous to the annual meeting for the 
choice of district officers, one of the trustees for District No. 2, of the 
town of Evans, county of Erie, was arrested on execution, and commit- 
ted to the jail limits of the county, where he has since been and still is 
confined. 

At the annual meeting of the district, a motion was made to elect a 
trustee in the place of the individual thus imprisoned, but the majority, 
thinldng there was no vacancy to be filled, refused to elect, and subse- 
quently the town superintendent appointed Chauncey Stone, a trustee, 
in the place of Enos Avery, the former incumbent. 

An appeal was taken to the county superintendent of Erie county, 
who reversed the action of the town superintendent, and annulled the 
appointment. 

Section 71, of Common School Laws, published in 1844, authorizes 
the town superintendent to appoint any person residing in the district, 
to supply any vacancy occasioned by the death of the incumbent, 
refusal to serve, removal out of the district or incapacity of any officer, 
when the vacancy shall not have been filled by a district meeting 
within one month after the same shall occur ; and the only question 
now presented is, had either of these contingencies happened one month 
previous to the time the appointment was made ? 

It would not, I think, do to hold that no other than a legal incapa- 
city should operate to create a vacancy, nor will it do to say that a 
refusal to serve may not be as strongly inferred from the acts of an 
raoumbent as by a du-ect assertion that he will not discharge the duties 
of his office. 

Mr. Avery, no doubt, is an inhabitant of the district in every legal 
sense, yet in point of fact he is actually incapacitated from the discharge 
of his duties as trustee, by reason of his confinement upon the jail 
limits out of his town and out of the boundaries of his district. 

The decision of the county superintendent is therefore reversed, and 
that of the town superintendent affirmed. 

Per N. S. Benton, October 8, 1846. 



54 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. ^ 

Taxation of a person having the naked possession of land without color of title. 
A previous case commented on and explained. 

On the first day of April last, Mr. Davis executed and delivered a deed 
of liis farm to Mr. Frost, the owner of the adjoining land, receiving from 
him a payment of $900, in cash and the promissory notes of third per- 
sons, and a mortgage for the residue of the purchase money. On the 
12th day of April, the trustees made out a tax list, and, as Mr. Davis 
still continued in possession of the farm he had sold, assessed him for 
the value thereof. Upon his objecting, and stating to the trustees that 
he was in possession only at sufferance, while waiting for the opening 
of lake navigation to transport his family and effects to Wisconsin, the 
trustees proposed to assess him for the price of the farm as personal 
property. To this he replied that he had already made a contract for 
the purchase of a farm in Wisconsin, and bound himself to pay a larger 
sum than that for which he had sold his farm, and offered to make an 
affidavit that his debts exceeded the value of his personal property. 
The trustees being satisfied of the truth of his statement, but supposing 
themselves bound to assess him for the farm by a decision of the super- 
intendent (for which see pp. 39, 40, ante), united with Mr. Davis in 
submitting the facts for a decision. 

The trustees have been misled by overlooking the distinction between 
the present case and that to which they refer. In the former case, Mr. 
Hoyt reserved the right of possession for a definite period, and was the 
actual owner, with all the responsibilities of ownership, until that period 
arrived. In this case, Mr. Davis, though actually in possession, is with- 
out any claim of title to possession for an hour. Mr. Frost is the admit- 
ted owner, though he has not exercised his extreme right by inhospita- 
bly turning his neighbor out of doors. As such owner he is liable to be 
taxed for the real estate purchased. 

The facts conceded in respect to the indebtedness of Mr. Davis are a 
conclusive answer to any supposed obligation on the part of the trustees 
to assess him for personal estate, though the fact that he is about to 
remove, and can receive no benefit from the tax, has no legal import- 
ance in the question. 

Per A. G. Johnson, Dep. Supt., May, 1849. 

A tax may be voted, levied and collected in a school district to purchase a site 
and school-house, but the money cannot be applied until a valid title is 
obtained. 

The appellants in this case seek to set aside the proceedings of. a 
special meeting held in District No. 9, on the 29th of November last, 
at which resolutions were adopted for the purchase of a new site and 
house, upon the ground that a valid legal title cannot be obtained to 
such site and house. They allege that the house was built by private 
subscription, and is now owned by various persons in and out of the 
district, some of whom will not consent to transfer their right to the 
district. This allegation, vague and general as it is, is explicitly met 
and denied by the trustees, who assert that they can procure a good 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 65 

title. This question of title, however, is one which cannot come up at 
this stage of the proceedings. The tax voted may legally be levied and 
collected, but cannot be applied until a valid legal title is obtained. 

From the proofe before him, the superintendent entertains no doubt 
of the sufficiency of the title, and so much of the appeal as relates to 
this portion of the proceedings of the meeting is therefore dismissed. 
Per Morgan, Jaiiuaiy 18, 1851. 

When a tax list has been made out, but not delivered to the collector, it is no 
objection to the trustees calling auoiher meeting of the inhabitants to 
reconsider the proceedings of the meeting at which the tax was voted, if 
requested by a respectable number of the inhabitants. 

In this case, the appellants seek to set aside the proceedings of a 
special meeting, held on the 20th of February last, at which a previous 
vote of the district relative to the length of time during which a school 
should be taught, was reconsidered, and a less period adopted. Under the 
preceding vote, the tax list had been made out by the trustees, but the 
warrant had not been delivered to the collector. The superintendent 
is of opinion, that under such circumstances it was legally competent to 
the inhabitants to reconsider the previous vote. 

Per Morgan, April 23, 1850, 

Trustees have no power to set aside or invalidate the proceedings of a district 

meeting upon the assumption that they were illegal. 
Though illegal votes are cast at such meeting the trustees carmot set aside the 

proceedings. The remedy is by appeal. 

On the 1st day of October last, at an adjourned meeting of the tax- 
able inhabitants of District No. 2, in Belmont, held for the purpose of 
locating a site for the school-house, a site was fixed on the land of Wink- 
ley and Smith, and the sum of $200.00 voted to build a school-house 
thereon. A confirmation and renewal of the vote fixing the site was 
had on the 30th of November last, at a special meeting of the district, 
more fully attended by the inhabitants, but no tax was voted for build- 
ing the school-house. On the 14th of December a vote was adopted 
locating the site on lands of E. Stanton, Jr., and the sum of 1200.00 
directed to be raised for building. On the 11th of January last, the site 
was again changed to the lands of Winkley and Smith, and the same 
amount voted to be raised for building the school-house thereon. Not- 
withstanding this last and final vote of the district, and in the absence 
of any appeal from the proceedings, the trustees have determined to 
apply the tax voted to build a house on Mr. Stanton's land, on the alle- 
gation that an illegal vote was received at the last meeting by means of 
which the vote was invalidated and the preceding vote remained in force, 
and from this determination of the trustees the present appeal is taken. 

If any of the proceedings of the meeting held on the 11th of Janu- 
ary were illegal the appropriate remedy of the trustees or of any persons 
aggrieved was by appeal to this department. It is not within their 



oG DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

power to set aside or invalidate those proceedings on their mere assump- 
tion of such illegality. The money directed to be raised at that meet- 
ing, in the absence of any appeal within the time and in the mode 
prescribed by law, must be applied according to the vote then taken, 
and any other application of it will be illegal and invalid and will sub- 
ject the trustees to personal responsibility to the district for the amount 
so expended, and to the forfeitures and penalties prescribed by law. 

The allegation, moreover, of the trustees that an illegal vote was cast 
at the meeting referred to by which the result was changed, is wholly 
unsupported by the facts, as they appear from the papers. 

The proceedings of the meeting of the 11th of January, are therefore 
hereby confirmed and the trustees directed to apply the tax voted 
accordingly. 

Per Morgan, February 11, 1850. 

The town superintendent of the town in which the school-house of a joint district 
is located, must grant the certificate of qualification to the teacher who 
teaches therein. 

This is an appeal from the action of the trustees of Joint District 
No, 9, Preble and Scott, Cortland county, in hiring Albert R. Ingraham 
as a teacher in said district. 

The facts in this case show that the said Ingraham applied to Abra- 
ham Woodard, town superintendent of Preble, in which town the 
school-house is situated, for a license to teach, and was rejected for 
want of the requisite qualifications. He afterwards applied to the 
superintendent of the town of Scott, and from him obtained a certificate 
to teach. 

This was illegal. The town superintendent of the town of Preble, in 
which the school-house was located, could alone grant the certificate. 

Per Morgan, January, 1848. 

Trustees should not admit non-resident children into their school contrary to the 
instructions of the inhabitants in district meeting assembled. 

QuoEj-e : Does not ^ 1, chap. 151, Laws of 1851, vest an exclusive discretion in 
the trustees 1 

This is an appeal from the decision of the county superintendent of 
common schools, sustaining the decision of the trustees in admitting 
children of non-resident parents into their district school, contrary to 
the instructions of the inhabitants of said district at their annual 
meeting. 

As a general principle it is the duty of trustees to carry into effect 
the instructions of the district in reference to those matters over which 
they are allowed by law to exercise a discretionary control. Had the 
vote of the inhabitants in this case been a full and fair expression of the 
wishes of the district in reference to the admission of non-resident 
children, the superintendent would have deemed it his duty to carry 
the resolution into efi'ect, however ill-judged such a vote might be 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 57 

regarded under the circumstances of the case ; but it is evident ii'om the 
testimony on the part of the respondents, that this vote was improperly 
and unfairly obtained — that it does not represent the wishes or views of 
a majority of the inhabitants, but on the other hand, that a decided 
preponderance against such a proposition has been distinctly manifested 
on the part of those inhabitants of the district most interested in sus_ 
taining the school. It does not appear that the admission of thesg 
children in any respect injures the school or embarrasses its operations . 
on the contrary, the trustees are enabled by such accession to sustain' 
teachers of a higher order of qualification, than would otherwise be in 
their power. However, the public money of the district into which 
these children are admitted, cannot be appropriated in diminution of the 
charge for their tuition. 

Per Young, August, 1843. 

The Department of Public Instruction, in the formation and alteration 
of school districts, acts upon one uniform rule, never (except in certain 
special cases and for the most urgent reasons) to permit new districts to 
be formed with a less number of children between the ages of five and 
sixteen years, than from thirty-five to forty, and never to countenance 
or sanction changes or alterations of districts which shall reduce the 
number of school children in a district below what has been found from 
practical experience, would afi"ord an average attendance sufficient to 
give full employment to a competent teacher. 

Per N. S. Benton, June 30, 1&47. 

The Superintendent of Public Instruction will reverse an order of a town super- 
intendent annexing one district to anotlier, where the inhabitants of either 
are opposed to the union, and have sufficient means for the support of a 
school, it being an abuse of his discretion. 

This is an appeal from an order of the county superintendent of 
Greene county, who confirmed the proceedings of a town superintendent 
of the 28th June last, uniting Districts No. 2 and 19, of the town of 
Catskill. The county superintendent sustained the order of the town 
superintendent and dismissed the appeal. From this decision this appeal 
is brought. 

From a careful examination of the papers in the case, the superinten- 
dent is compelled to diff"er in opinion with the county superintendent 
and town board, by whose order the union of Districts No. 2 and 19 
has been effected. It appears that sufficient importance has not been 
given to the facts that the inhabitants of District No. 2 almost unani- 
mously remonstrated against the proposed union ; that they have every 
necessary facility within themselves, as at present organized, to sustain 
a good school ; that for several years past they have done so, and that 
they do not need any accession of territory, taxable property or inhabi- 
tants ; that district No. 19, so far as wealth and children of the proper 
age to attend school are concerned, is far more able to keep up an efficient 
■ organization than District No. 2 ; and that the failure of the inhabitants 

rDiGEST.l 8 



68 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

in District 19, under such circumstances, even to procure a school 
house, so far from entitling them to special consideration, ought upon 
every principle, to operate adversely to their claim. Doubtless the 
union of two districts contiguously situated, and together occupying a 
small area, would prove mutually advantageous, provided such union 
could be effected by the general consent and cooperation of the inhabi- 
tants interested. But in the absence of such consent, and^specially in 
the face of a determined and unanimous opposition, to such an arrange- 
ment on the part of one of the districts proposed to be united, a con- 
solidation could, in the judgment of the department, only prove detri- 
mental to the cause of education, and subversive of the best interests of 
all concerned. No good reason can be perceived why the inhabitants 
of District No. 19 should not promptly avail themselves of the ample 
means at their command, to organize and eflBciently sustain a school of 
the highest grade of excellence, instead of permitting their territory to 
be parcelled out into private and select schools. They do not need the 
aid of District No. 2, in order to the accomplishment of this object. 
The decision of the county superintendent is hereby reversed. 
Per Young, August, 1843. 

It is the settled policy of the Department of Public Instruction, to favor the con- 
solidation of weak and inefBcient districts. 

The town superintendent of Independence, Allegany county, had 
consolidated two weak and inefficient districts, Nos. 7 and 1 1 . Upon 
an appeal to the county superintendent, he reversed the order of the 
town superintendent, upon the sole ground that it was, apparently, the 
only means of putting an end to the quarrels and dissensions that had 
unhappily arisen in the consolidated district. The county superinten- 
dent at the same time admitted that the organization, as made by the 
town superintendent, was " the most judicious one that could be entered 
into under existing circumstances," and that although not perfect, " it was 
the best that could be made until the population of the neighborhood 
becomes more dense." 

The State Superintendent reversed the decision of the county super- 
intendent, and confirmed the order of the town superintendent, strongly 
reprehending the bad policy of reestablishing two weak and inefficient 
districts, obviously incapable of maintaining an adequate organization. 
Per Young, December 20, 1844. 

The superintendent has power to remove a trustee from office, for corruption or 
intentional neglect of official duties, or for willful disobedience of the orders 
of the department. 

On the 20th of December last, the trustees in District No. 6, in the 
town of Somers, were directed and required by an order of this depart- 
ment, within ten days from the service upon them of snch order, 
to execute a certain tax list and warrant, made out by Jacob G. 
Purdy, one of the trustees, for the collection of the amount voted at a. 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 59 

special meeting lield in said district on the 27tli of September last, for 
building a school-house and out buildings, and fencing the site, deduct- 
'ing therefrom the sum of $8.50, the balance remaining in the hands of 
said trustees, on the sale of the house belonging to said district. 

A copy of this order was served upon the two trustees who refused 
to sign the tax list and warrant on the 25th of December. On the 2d 
day of January, the trustees met by previous appointment. The tax 
list was produced, and the $8.50 above named deducted therefrom, 
when the two trustees for the first time interposed an objection, that a 
certain piece of land was included in the tax list which was not taxable 
in the district, and insisted upon its deduction, although no legal claim 
to that effect had been made by the owner or occupant of the land 
within the time prescribed by law. On the ensuing day, the trustees 
had another meeting, but Carpenter and Ferris still declined, on various 
pretenses, signing the tax list, and have, up to the present period, 
refused or neglected to carry into effect the order of the department. 

This refusal is sought to be justified by them upon several grounds, 
among which the most important are that Purdy refused to make the 
necessary correction of the tax list, and also to account to his colleagues 
for certain pecuniary transactions of the district. Neither of these 
excuses can be received. If there were any error in the tax list, as pre- 
sented to them for signature, it was clearly within their power as the 
majority of the trustees, to have made the requisite correction in the 
mode prescribed by law. Whatever may have been the conduct of Mr. 
Purdy, it constituted no sufficient grounds for a refusal on their part to 
comply with an express order of this department. They have manifested 
a determination to resist the explicit direction of the superintendent in 
the premises, and to evade the performance of their duties as trustees. 
In pursuance, therefore, of the authority vested inme by chap. 382, § 15 of 
the Laws of 1849, I do hereby remove the said Carpenter and Ferris 
from office as trustees of District No. 6 in the town of Somers. 

Per Morgan, January 28, 1851. 

When the inhabitants of a school district at their annual meeting, elect trustees, 
their proceedings will be held legal, although, such election is made by a 
small minority of the inhabitanta. 

This is in substance an appeal from the refusal of the trustees of 
District No. 11, to grant an order upon the town superintendent for a 
portion of the public money belonging to the district, applicable to the 
payment of teachers' wages in favor of a duly qualified teacher employed 
by the appellants while acting as trustees under color ora legal election 
by the district, and who taught in the school-house of the district. The 
annual meeting at which both sets of trustees were chosen was notified 
to be held on the 2d of October, 1843, at 6 o'clock, P. M., at which hour 
five inhabitants only were in attendance. They, however, organized and 
elected district officers, in accordance with law. After their adjounmaent, 
but before leaving the house, the residue of the inhabitants came in and 
insisted upon a re-organization which was accordingly had, without the 



60 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

participation, however, of the inhabitants first assembled, and the appel- 
lants were elected trustees. The county superintendent having been 
consulted, gave his opinion that the latter election was legal and valid;' 
and in accordance with this opinion the appellants proceeded to employ 
a teacher and take upon themselves the discharge of their official duties 
without opposition. The persons first elected, however, without ques- 
tioning or controverting the right of the appellants to the use of the 
district school-house and the cotitrol of the district property generally, 
employed a teacher who taught under their direction and in accordance 
with a vote of the inhabitants first assembled, in a private house, in a 
part of the district remote. from the school-house. After the termina- 
tion of both schools the question of the legality of the election of the 
officiating trustees was submitted to this department, and the persons 
first elected declared to be the only legal trustees. They accordingly 
took possession of the books, papers and other property of the district, 
gave an order for a portion of the public money in the hands of the 
town superintendent in favor of the teacher employed by them, and 
who was duly qualified, and refused to recognize the teacher employed 
by the appellants. From this refusal to recognize the teacher employed 
by the appellants, the present appeal was brought. 

The county superintendent, conceiving himself bound by the prior 
decision of the department declaring the first election valid, felt ]t his 
duty to dismiss the appeal and refer the rights of the parties to the 
department. 

Although there can be no doubt of the validity and legality of the 
first election, yet the official acts of the persons subsequently chosen, 
under color of a legal election, and who took upon themselves the office 
of trustees, will be recognized and protected for all practical purposes as 
trustees, until the decision of the department declaring their election 
illegal, was obtained. Their employment of a teacher prior to such a 
decision, was therefore an official act, and inasmuch as the teacher 
contemporaneously employed by the legal trustees has been paid, and 
there still remains a balance of public money applicable to the payment 
of teachers' wages in the hands of the town superintendent, it is the 
duty of the trustees, and they are hereby directed to draw an order for 
such balance on the town superintendent, in favor of the teacher so 
employed by the appellants, while acting as trustees under claim of a 
legal election, and to make out a rate bill and warrant in the mode 
prescribed by law for the residue of his wages, against the inhabitants 
who sent to school. By this disposition of the case, it is conceived 
substantial juSWce will be done to all parties, and the rights of none 
infringed. It is the misfortune of the appellants that they were not 
more punctual in their attendance upon the annual meeting of the 
district. 

Per S. Young, October 7, 1844. 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 61 

The illegality or irregularity of the election of trustees, is no excuse for a town 
superintendent for refusing to pay over the public money, upon the order of 
such trustees. He must be governed by the report of these officers, made 
in conformity to law. 

The town superintendent of the town of Spencer, Tioga county, 
declined to pay over, on the order of the trustees of District 3, in said 
town, in favor of a duly qualified teacher, a portion of the school 
moneys apportioned to said district, and from this act the trustees 
appealed to the county superintendent, who sustained the appeal, and 
ordered the town superintendent to pay the money over, for the pur- 
poses and in the manner prescribed hy law. Town superintendents 
will not be permitted to inquire, as in this case, on being presented 
with a written order, signed by the trustees of a district, into the 
validity of the appointment or election of the persons claiming to act, 
and who are acting as such officers. Such an order, duly receipted by 
the person in whose favor it may have been drawn, would be a perfect 
protection to him. It is not pretended that this money is withheld for 
any defect in the last annual report, or that schools have not been 
taught in conformity with the requirements of law. As a general 
principle, collateral matters cannot be drawn in question, involving 
judicial cognizance, by any officer, when called upon to discharge a 
mere ministerial duty. And the town superintendent in this case 
assumes to decide who are not the trustees of the district, a matter 
entirely beyond his jurisdiction. The decision of the county superin- 
tendent, therefore, ordering him to pay over the money to the trus- 
tees as aforesaid, was correct, and is hereby affirmed. 

Per N. S. Benton, January 29, 1846. 

Neither the Department of Public Instruction, nor the moderator of 
a school district meeting, has any right, under the statute, to prohibit 
any male person who makes the declaration required by law, from 
voting ; but it will be the duty of this department to correct and set 
aside all proceedings consummated or carried by votes clearly illegal, 
the result depending upon them. It is the duty of the person acting as 
chairman or moderator of a district meeting, to permit any person 
challenged to make the declaration required by statute, and any refusal 
to perform this duty, will be good ground for setting aside the proceed- 
ing's of a school district meeting. 

Per N. S. Benton, July 12, 1847, 

A stove and pipe are necessary appendages to a school-house, and proper objects 
for the levying of a district tax. 

At a district school meeting, held in the town of Eodman, on the 
20th day of November last, a vote was taken and a resolution passed 
to levy a tax upon a district to purchase a stove and pipe for the use of 
the school-house in the district. 



62 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

The appellants claim that the district has no authority to levy a tax 
for such a purpose. In the opinion of the superintendent a stove and 
pipe are necessary appendages to a school-house and legitimate objects 
for the levy of a district tax. The proceedings of the meeting in voting 
the tax aforesaid are hereby affirmed. 

Per N. S. Benton, December 31, 1847. 

A district may purchase a site by a majority vote. It is different from changing 
a site. 

This is a case in relation to the proceedings of a school district meet- 
ing in the town of Royalton. The district, it seems, has never been 
the legal o\?ner of a site ; it undoubtedly has a right to procure 
one by a majority of the votes at a district meeting, and without the 
formalities required in case of a change of site. 

I see no objection to the mode adopted by the district in the purchase 
of the land. A deed should, however, be obtained by the district, pre- 
vious to the expenditure of any money on the house, so that the title 
may be secure. 

Per Dix, November 5, 1838. 

Persons who are by their profession dedicated to the service of God and the cure 
of souls, and having a license to preach, or who have complied with the form 
and mode of ordination, are ministers of the gospel within the law. 

This is a case arising in a school district in Philadelphia, Jefferson 
county, where the trustees doubted the right of a person claiming to be 
a clergyman, to be exempt from taxation. 

The intention of the law relating to the taxation of property belong- 
ing to ministers of the gospel, must be considered as applicable only to 
those who are by their profession dedicated to the service of God and 
the cure of souls. In a church where a license to preach is required, 
or where a form of ordination is necessary the license should be obtained 
or the form complied with in order to entitle an individual to exemption 
under the law. I am of opinion that a license limited in point of time, 
is sufficient to entitle the individual holding it, to an exemption for the 
time during which it continues. 

Per Dix, June 11, 1838. 

Town superintendents can pay over public money only upon the 
written order of the trustees or a majority of them, to the teacher enti- 
tled to receive the same. 

Per Morgan, May 29, 1851. 

The State Superintendent will, on proper application, remove a trustee for 
unwarrantable neglect of official duty. 

Elisha Bedell, one of the ti-ustees of school District No. 1, in the town 
of Hempstead, is charged with a willful disturbance and interruption of 
the school taught by Mary Augusta Brown, in said district. Mr. Yan 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 63 

Cott, another of tlie trustees, is charged with a refusal to unite with 
one of his colleagues in prosecuting for such offense, in accordance with 
the statute. 

It is in evidence that Mr. Bedell went to the school room, and in the 
presence of the scholars used angry and abusive language to the teacher, 
openly countermanded her orders in conducting the school, and caused 
the school to be thrown into disorder, and that both teacher and pupils 
were much frightened by his lang-uage and threatening manner, and 
for some time after she was unable to proceed with the school. 

The evidence is confirmed by the report of a committee of ten 
appointed by the inhabitants of the district, at the annual meeting to 
visit and examine the school, who, in concluding their statement, 
observe that they " were compelled to the opinion that Mr. Bedell has 
thereby disqualified himself for the office of trustee, and that it is 
evidently for the welfare of the school that he should forthwith resign 
his office." 

This array of evidence is met only by a general and unsatisfactory 
denial by Mr. Bedell. 

There can be no doubt, in the opinion of the superintendent, from 
evidence, that Mr. Bedell has been guilty of a gross and unjustifiable 
violation of law and neglect of official duty. The same conduct in an 
individual not officially connected with the school, would unquestionably 
have incurred the penalty prescribed by law ; and it certainly does not 
mitigate the offense or change its nature, that it was committed by an 
officer specially charged with the preservation of quiet and order in the 
school, and with the protection and guardianship of its interests. 

The act of 1845, to prevent disturbances in schools, above referred 
to, makes it the special duty of the trustees of any school district in 
which any such offense shall be committed, to prosecute such offender, 
before any officer having cognizance of such offense. Mr. Van Cott, 
one of the two remaining trustees, having been called upon for the per- 
formance of this duty, positively refused to comply with said request, 
and still refuses so to do. This is clearly an unwarrantable neglect of 
official duty, for which no defense is interposed ; and the said Elisha 
Bedell and Nicholas Van Cott are hereby removed from office as trus- 
tees of said district. 

Per Morgan, July, 1851. 

Notice of the object of an annual meeting is not required by law. Every inhabi- 
tant is presumed to know that any business affecting the interest of the 
district may be transacted without special notice thereof. 

This is an appeal from the proceedings of the annual meeting of a 
district held October Y, 1851. 

At an adjourned annual meeting, held in the district April 7th, 1851, 
a resolution was passed to change the site of the school-house, and the 
necessary taxes were voted to purchase the site and to move the school- 
house. The proceedings of this meeting are presumed to have been 
legal. 



64 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

On the Ytli of October, 1851, the annual meeting was held. The 
customary notices for an annual meeting were posted in the district but 
no particular business was specified except that officers would be elected. 

At this meeting a resolution was passed reconsidering and rescinding 
the proceedings of April 7th, 1851, so fai as related to the change of 
site for the school-house and the raising of taxes to defray the expenses 
of the same. 

It is alleged that special notice should have been given of the inten- 
tion to reconsider the proceedings of the meeting of April 7th to make 
the proceedings binding. 

This department has always maintained the rule, and the law pre- 
scribes that the object for which a special meeting of a district is called, 
shall be specified in the notice of such meeting. But an annual meet- 
ing is always an adjourned meeting. It is not necessary to give special 
notices, as every inhabitant of the district is presumed to know when it 
will be held, and also that any busmess which may properly come before 
any district meeting, may be transacted at this. It is the meeting of 
the district, and every inhabitant is bound to be present to promote the 
interests of the district as well as to protect his own rights. 

The whole business of the meeting of April 7th, was subject to review 
and it was competent to reconsider and rescind the whole or any part 
thereof except so far as the trustees had carried out the vote of th« 
first meeting, or incurred debts or responsibilities under it. 

Per Morgan, December 30, 1851. 

Whenever the inhabitants of a school district arc misled by the erroneous advice 
of the town superintendent, and their rights become jeopardized thereby, this 
department will interpose for their relief, it being a case of surpiise. 

This is an appeal from the proceedings of an annual meeting in a 
district on the 6th day of October last, in voting to change the site of 
the school-house, and to levy a tax to purchase a new site and build a 
school-house thereon. 

The appellants ask that the proceedings of said meeting may be set 
aside so far as they relate to their votes, on the ground that they did 
not suppose that resolutions upon these subjects could be passed at an 
annual meeting, and therefore they were not present at the meeting 
above referred to. Annexed to the appeal are the affidavits of several 
taxable inhabitants of the district stating that they were informed by 
the town superintendent, that the site of the school-house could not be 
changed except at a special meeting duly called for that purpose. It 
appears that quite a large number of the inhabitants of the district who 
were desirous of being present, whenever the resolution to change the 
site of the school-house was to be acted upon, believed this information 
to be correct, and therefore did not attend the annual meeting. That 
such information was given by the town superintendent is in fact conce- 
ded by him in a letter to this department, although he states that soon 
after his conversation with the appellants he found upon examining the 
statute, that the opinion which he had expressed was incorrect. 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 65- 

Inasmucii as the appellants have been misled by bis information and 
advice, it appears to me that such a case of surprise is made out, as 
calls for relief from this department. 

The prayer of the appellants is o;ranted. 

Per H. S. Randall, March 25, 1852. 

It is not necessary that a majority of all the taxable inhabitants should be 
obtained, in addition to the consent of the town superintendent, in order to 
change the site, but only a majority of tliose present, and voting at a meet- 
ing duly notified. 

This is an appeal from the proceedings of a special meeting held in 
said district on the 18th day of October, 1851. 

At this meeting, it appears that resolutions were passed changing the 
site of the school-house, and authorizing the collection of llO.OO by 
tax, for purchasing a new site, and |1 75.00 for building a ncAV school- 
house thereon. The appellant alleges that these resolutions were not 
passed in the manner required by law, and that the town superinten- 
dent never legally gave his consent to the proposed change of site. 

The appeal papers concede that the resolution to change the site, 
was passed by a vote of a majority of all the taxable inhabitants of tho 
district who were present and voted at the meeting. Therefore, if the 
consent of the town superintendent was given in accordance with law, 
the resolution to change the site was passed by the required legal 
majority of the inhabitants. For it is not necessary, that in addition to 
the consent of the toyvn superintendent, a majority of all the taxable 
inhabitants residing in the district should be obtained, in order to 
change the site, but only a majority of those present and voting at a 
meeting duly notified. 

It appears by the answer that the town superintendent did give his 
consent in writing, to the proposed change, on condition that the 
requisite majority of the inhabitants of the district should be in favor of 
the change. This consent became absolute the moment the condition 
was complied with. The requisite was obtained upon the passage of 
the resolutions. 

Appeal dismissed. 

Per H. S. Randall, March 25, 1852. 

Where a town superintendent decides that a vacancy exists in the office of 
trustee, he should wait one month after announcing his decision, before 
assuming to fill the vacancy. 

This is an appeal from a decision and order of the town superinten- 
dent of Beekmantown, on the 22d day of November last, deciding that 
there were two vacancies in the office of trustee in said district and 
appointing two persons to fill such vacancies. 

From a careful examination of the papers, I am satisfied that tho 
town superintendent was correct in deciding that the vacancies existed ; 
but the district being a joint one lying partly in two difi"erent towns, it 
required the action of the town superintendents of both towns to fill 

[Digest.] 9 



66 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

tlie vacancies by appointment. The appointments which were made 
were therefore void, although the town superintendent in proceeding to 
fill the vacancies may have acted in perfect good faith. 

But even if he had the right to fill the vacancy, I am of opinion that 
he should have waited one month after announcing his decision, that 
the oflice was vacant, in order that the inhabitants might have an oppor- 
tunity to supply the vacancies if they desired to do so. 

Therefore it "is hereby declared that the appointments so as aforesaid 
made, were and are irregular and void, and the clerk of said district is 
hereby ordered, within ten days after he receives this order, to call a 
special meeting for the purpose of filling the vacancies wliich exist in 
the office of trustee in said district, &c. 

Per H. S. Randall. March 26, 1852. 

Where a building committee in concert with the trustees are invested with discre- 
tionary power by resolution of a district and have entered upon the execu- 
tion of their trust, by making contracts for materials, &c., the district can- 
not control or interfere with their plans. 

This is an appeal from the proceedings of a building committee 
appointed to take charge of building a new school-house, and from the 
refusal of the trustees to call a special meeting for the purpose of com- 
paring drafts and models of architecture and adopting the best plan, for 
building a school-house, wood-house and other fixtures belonging to the 
same. 

In reply to the appeal the trustees and building committee, allege 
that on or about the 8th day of March last, at a special meeting called 
for the purpose, the district voted to build a new brick school-house 20 
by 25^ feet ; that Benjamin Wright and others, then submitted their 
plans or drafts for building said house which were voted down by the 
meeting. A vote was then passed giving the trustees and building com- 
mittee discretionary power in regard to building and furnishing said 
house in the best and cheapest manner according to the size above 
mentioned. 

They further allege that in pursuance of such vote, they went on and 
purchased brick and materials and entered into a contract, for laying 
the brick and stone, and lathing and plastering the interior of the build- 
ing, and procured Avindow frames and doors and sash with glass set, and 
that the walls of the house were now up and the roof nearly completed. 

Under such circumstances, the superintendent is of the opinion that 
it is now too late to interfere with the proceedings of the building com- 
mittee. The district might have restricted their powers by a vote for 
that purpose, when they were appointed, but having failed to do so, and 
having vested them with a discretion in the discharge of their duties, 
there is nothing in the case which calls for the interposition of this 
department. 

Per H. S. Randall, May 19, 1852 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 67 

Who are legal voters at district meetings, and what vote necessary to raise tax by 
installments. 

Tlie qualification of voters in school district meetings, is defined in 
§ 59, chap. 480, Laws of 1847. (No. 84, School Laws and Forms for 
1848.) 

Every person, to be a voter in a school district meeting must, there- 
fore, be a male twenty-one years of age, and a resident of the district. 
Any person having these three qualifications, and " entitled to hold 
lands in this state, who oions or hires real properti/ in such district, 
subject to taxation for school purposes,^'' is a voter. 

This clause authorizes aliens, who have declared their intention to 
become citizens of the United States, and who have filed a certificate 
of such intention in the ofl^ice of the Secretary of State, to vote, provided 
they own or hire real property in the district. It also authorizes 
tenants of houses or lands, subject to taxation in the district, to vote, 
whether they pay the taxes or not. Legal voters at town meetings, who 
have paid a rate bill for teacher's wages within one year preceding, are 
also voters in the district where they reside. 

Any person who has a family, and is a legal voter at town meetings, 
and has personal property liable to be taxed in the district, exceeding 
$50.00 in value, exclusive of such as is exempt from execution, is also a 
voter. 

A man without a family, having personal property exceeding $50.00 in 
value, liable to taxation, is also a voter, because his property is none 
of it exempt from execution. 

Hence it follows that while on the one hand, in some cases, aliens, 
not legal voters at town meetings, may be legal voters at district school 
meetings ; on the other hand, in all cases, legal voters at town meetings, 
who do not own or hire real property, and who have not personal pro- 
perty exempt from execution, exceeding $50.00 in value, are not legal 
voters in district school meetings. And as to be " a male of full age, 
and a resident of the district," is an essential qualification of every voter, 
women are necessarily denied the privilege of voting in any case. 

A district meeting legally called and assembled, may, by a majorify 
of those present and voting, vote to raise $400.00 or less, for the purpose 
of building a school-house ; and also any sum necessary for the pur- 
chase of a site. And if the town superintendent shall certify in writing, 
that a larger sum is necessary for building a school-house, and shall 
specify the sum, any amount not exceeding the sum so specified, may be 
raised by a majority of the legal voters present and voting at the meet- 
ing. (§ 70, chapter 480, Laws of 1847. ) 

School districts are not permitted to mortgage or incumber their 
school-house lot. But in order to enable a district to raise a large sum 
of money, without the necessity of laying a tax for the whole of it in 
one year, § 71, chapter 480, Laws of 1847, provides for raising a tax by 
installments. 

The words " taxable inhabitants," in this section, being used without 
limitation or qualification, must be construed to mean all who are liable 



68 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

to be taxed, and who attend the meeting — citizens, aliens, women, 
minors, residing in the district. The number of taxable inhabitants can 
be ascertained from the last assessment roll of the town. A majority 
of such inhabitants attending, to be ascertained by taking and recording 
the ayes and noes, is necessary to the validity of a vote to raise a tax 
by installments. But this majority must be made up of legal voters, 
for although this section of the statute requires a majority of all 
the taxable inhabitants attending to have their names recorded in 
the affirmative, it does not make all the taxable inhabitants legal 
voters for the purposes of such a vote. Who then are legal voters 
under this section ? The same persons and no others, authorized to 
vote by § 59, hereinbefore quoted. Neither women nor minors, nor 
persons not liable to be taxed, can vote upon the question of raising a 
tax by installments. Therefore, a man who hires a house, and is a legal 
voter at district meetings in ordinary cases, but who is not on the 
assessment roll, and pays no taxes, cannot vote upon this question. If 
one person owned all the land of a school district, and it was all 
assessed to the owner, the tenants could not vote upon this question, 
unless they were assessed for personal property. Non-residents, 
although taxable, are not such " taxable inhabitants," within the mean- 
ing of this section, as to be enumerated in estimating the number of 
taxable inhabitants in the district, and they are not voters in any case. 
The tax raised by virtue of this section, must also be raised by equal 
annual installments, for example : If it be voted to raise $1000.00 in five 
equal annual installments, the sum to be raised each year must be f 200.00, 
and not as some have supposed, $200.00 Avith the interest, that is 
$207.00 at the end of the first year, $214.00 at the end of the second 
year, and so on. Trustees and others must therefore make their con- 
tracts accordingly. 

Per Morgan, September 26, 1848. 

A chairman of a school district meeting is entitled to a vote upon all questions 
involving the levying of a tax. 

This is an appeal from the proceedings of the annual meeting held in 
said district on the 5th day of April last, in voting a tax of $400.00 for 
the purpose of building a school-house therein. It appears by the 
papers in the case, that the resolution by which the tax was authorized, 
was passed by a vote of six to five against the same. The appellant 
claims that the resolution was illegally passed, because, 

1. The clerk of the meeting refused to call the name of the chair- 
man, denying his right to vote ; 

2. That had the chairman been allowed to vote, he would have voted 
against said resolution ; and 

3. That one of the votes in favor of said resolution, was given by a 
person who was not a legal voter in said district. 

In their answer to the appeal, the trustees concede that the chairman 
was not permitted to vote upon said resolution, but they deny that he 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 69 

was lawfully entitled to vote tliereon, on the ground that he was chair- 
man of the meeting and only entitled to a casting vote. 

The trustees having made this concession have clearly shown that the 
proceedings of the meeting were not legally conducted, inasmuch as a legal 
vote was rejected, which if received might have affected the result of the 
vote upon the resolution. The chairman was equally entitled to vote 
upon the question of raising the tax with the other tax payers and 
voters of the district, and the meeting had no right to deprive him of 
his privileges or others of the benefits which they might have received 
had his vote been counted. 

It is therefore ordered that the proceedings of the meeting aforesaid, 
so far as the same relate to the resolution authorizing a tax of 1400.00 
for the purpose of building a school-house, be and the same are hereby 
set aside. 

Per H. S. Randall, June 25, 1852. 

Trustees have the power to exempt indigent persons either wholly or in part 
from the payment of a rate bill, and to collect the same by tax upon the 
district, but for an abuse of this power, this department will set aside their 
proceedings. 

The facts of this case as agreed upon and submitted are substantially 
as follows : 

On the 22d day of June last, the trustees made out a rate bill to 
collect the sum of $320.00 due for teachers' wages. In so doing they 
exempted in the first place several of the persons named in the rate 
bill fiom the payment of any part of the amount assessed against them, 
and then all others from the payment of one-half of their assessments. 

The whole amount of the exemptions was $239.29, and to collect 
this sum, the trustees made out a tax list against the taxable inhabitants 
of the district. In this tax list is included one of the persons who was 
wholly exempted, and all of those who were exempted in part, from the 
payment of their rate bill, and are assessed for real property situated in 
the district. From the proceedings of the trustees, as above stated, this 
appeal is brought on the ground that the exemptions were irregular and 
unauthorized by law. 

The statute has vested in the trustees of school districts, the power 
of exempting, either wholly or in part, as they may deem expedient, 
such indigent inhabitants as may in their judgment be entitled to 
exemption from the payment of a rate bill, and to collect the amount 
of such exemptions by a tax upon the district. 

This provision of the law is a wise and humane one, and whenever 
the authority is judiciously exercised by the trustees in behalf of those 
Avlio need its benefits, their action will not be disturbed by this depart- 
ment. 

But the legislature, in passing such a statute, in my judgment never 
designed that it should have so extensive and sweeping an effect as lias 
been given to it in this case. It was intended for the benefit of those 
whose circumstances were such as to render, them unable to procure the 



YO DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

means of paying for the tuition of their children. There doubtless 
wei-e many of this class in the district referred to, and in reference to 
whom the trustees have very properly exercised the power vested in 
them by law. But it appears to me they have gone beyond the intention 
of the statute. They have exempted every inhabitant of the district 
who sent to school, from the payment of at least one-half of his rate 
bill, apparently without any reference to the amount of property owned 
by each. This they had the power to do, provided such inhabitants 
were unable to pay the amount assessed against them. But the fact 
that every one of those who were exempted m part, were assessed upon 
the tax list for real property situated in the district, furnishes strong 
evidence of an ability to pay. If the property was incumbered to the 
extent of or beyond its value, the trustees should have made that fact 
appear. There is, however, no testimony upon that point, and as the 
case now stands, I am of opinion that all of those who were exempted in 
part, and one of those who was wholly exempted were not entitled to 
the benefits of the statute. 

For the reasons above stated, it is therefore ordered that the tax list 
and warrant above referred to be, and the same is hereby set aside. 

Per H. W. Johnson, Dep. Supt.,' August 11, 1852. 

When an appeal is pending before this department, all proceedings in the dis- 
trict from whence the appeal comes, in relation to the subject matter involved 
in the appeal, are stayed until the decision of the appeal. 

This is an appeal from the proceedings of a special meeting held in 
said district on the Yth day of June last. 

By the papers in the case, it appears that the meeting was called for 
the purpose of organizing the district and choosing district officers, and 
that the same was held while an appeal was pending in relation to the 
action of the town superintendent in forming the district. This fact 
being conceded, the proceedings of the meeting must be set aside, for 
the appeal stayed all proceedings in relation to organizing the district 
until it was finally decided, and the meeting therefore could not legally 
be held. 

It is therefore ordered that the proceedings of the meeting held in 
said district on the Vth day of June last, be and the same are hereby 
set aside. 

Per H. S. Randall, October 18, 1852. 

A school-house cannot be used for any other than school purposes except by the 
unanimous consent of the taxable inhabitants of the district. 

This is an appeal taken from the action of the trustees of School 
District No. 16, in the town of Almond, Allegany county, they having 
suffered the school-house in said district to be opened and employed for 
the holding of public meetings, resulting in great damage to the building, 
the fences around it, and the books belonging to scholars. 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. Tl 

It is also objected that the school is frequently required to be dismissed 
from one to two hours earlier than usual, on the days when meetings 
ai"e held in said school-house, &c. 

The employment of a school-house for public and especially for reli- 
gious meetings, when not wanted for school purposes, has been a time- 
honored custom upon which the superintendent is reluctant to intrench. 
Nor should there be in his opinion, any objection raised against the 
practice except in case of flagrant misemployment of the district pro- 
perty. But the question being raised, the necessity of deciding it accord- 
ing to the law of the land, devolves upon the State Supei'intendent. 

The trustees of each school district have the custody and control of 
the school-house, for the purposes defined and specified in the act con- 
ferring this authority. In general, school-houses are biiilt for the pur- 
pose of public instruction by teachers holding regular certificates of 
qualification, and also to furnish a place for the holding of school district 
meetings and for no other purpose. No inhabitant of a district can be 
taxed for firewood employed in warming a room for religious exercises, 
or cleaning it and repairing the wear, however slight, which attends 
such use. It is not within the power of a majority, however large, to 
authorize a tax for any such purpose, nor to devote the district property 
to any object outside of the purposes of common school instruction 
wliich may expedite in the slightest degree the period when such tax 
will become necessary against the willof asingle dissentient tax payer, 
however ungenerous and unreasonable may be his objections. 

In short the employment of school-houses for such objects is only 
tolerated by general consent. This department never raises the question. 
On the contrary, it approves the liberality of sentiment Avhich permits 
the use of these edifices for all praiseworthy objects of public interest, 
whether denominated religious or secular. It is, however, under the 
necessity of sustaining the objection when it is made. It is very pro- 
bable that those who procure such a decision will soon find occasion to 
regret it, in consequence of being themselves excluded from the use of 
the school-house for some purpose in which they may take an interest. 
The exclusion of all persons from occupation of the school-house for 
other than common educational purposes, applies necessarily to every 
occupation whether religious or otherwise. 

The appeal is sustained. 

Per E. P. Smith, Dep. Supt., July 17, 1855. 

The assent of a majority of the officers constituting the board is necessary to the 

validity of any order altering a district ; and 
If the district be a joint one, a majority of the officers of each of the towns from 

which such district is formed. 

This is an appeal from the supervisors, town superintendents and town 
clerks of the towns of Argyle and Fort Edward on the 10th day of 
February last, setting off a part of the above named district to Joint 
District No. 8, of said towns. 



n DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

It is conceded in this case, that the order was made without concur- 
rence of the supervisors and town clerk of Fort Edward. The alteration 
is therefore void, for it is well settled that the assent of a majority of 
the officers of each of the towns from which a joint district is formed, is 
necessary to the validity of any order altering the same. 

The order above referred to is therefore hereby set aside. 
Per H. S. Randall, May 13, 1853. 

Where a claim against a school district has been presented to the board of super- 
visors, and the board direct or refuse to direct the amount to be levied and 
collected uuou such district, an appeal will not lie to this department. 

The appellant m this case seeks, among other things, to obtain pay- 
ment of a claim which he makes against the above named district for 
costs and expenses incurred in suits brought against him in his official 
capacity. 

To establish the validity of this claim, he has set forth the proceedings 
of several meetings held in said district at various periods, from 1849 to 
the fall of 1852, and has given a detailed statement of the manner in 
which the claim accrued. 

■In reference to the whole question, it is sufficient to say that it appears 
from the evidence before me, that this claim has twice been presented 
to the board of supervisors of the county of Oswego, for allowance, in 
pursuance of chapter 172, of the Laws of 1847, and each time the board 
have refused to direct the amount to be collected out of the district. 
From such a refusal, the law has made no provision for an appeal to 
this. department or to any other tribunal. It was evidently the inten- 
tion of the act of 1847, to make the decision of the board of supervisors 
in such cases final and conclusive in the premises. I have therefore no 
power to grant the relief asked for. 

Appeal dismissed. 

Per H. S. Randall, May 12, 1853. 

Where an adjournment of a special district meeting is had for a period more than 
one month, notice of the object of such adjourned special meeting is neces- 
sary. 

The appellant in this case seeks to set aside the proceedings of an 
adjourned school meeting, held on the 2d day of July last, and the 
proceedings of the trustees in making out a tax list to collect a tax 
voted at said meeting. 

By the papers before me, it appears that a meeting was held on the 
24th day ot May last, for the purpose of selecting a site and voting a 
tax for building a school-house. This meeting was adjourned to the 2d 
day of July, It is conceded by the trustees, that no notice of the 
adjourned meeting was given, and they claim that none was necessary. 
The omission to give this notice, is one of the grounds of complaint in 
the appeal. 

By § 81 of the School Law of 1847, clerks of school districts 
are required to give notice in writing, of the time and place for anv 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 13 

adjourned district meeting, when the same shall be adjourned for a 
longer period than one month. From this section, it is manifest that 
notice is required in all cases where a meeting has been adjourned 
for more than one month. A failure to give such notice Avould be fatal, 
as a failure to give afty notice of the time and place of holding the 
annual meeting. The adjournment in this case exceeded one month, 
and therefore notice of the meeting should have been given. As it was 
entirely omitted, the proceedings were irregular, and must be set aside. 

Per H. S. Randall, October 6, 1853. 

No notice of an assessment is required except where an original valuation is 
made ; nor is a notice that a tax list has been placed in the hands of a col- 
lector for collection necessary. 

The appellants m this case seek to obtain an order setting aside a tax 
list on the following grounds : 

1. That the trustees did not give any notice to the tax payers to meet 
and review their assessment roll. 

2. That they did not give any notice that said tax list was completed 
and that the trustees would meet on a certain day to receive payment 
of taxes without any per centage. 

3. That the collector did not advertise according to law that he would 
receive voluntary payment of taxes. 

These objections are untenable. The present school law does not 
require any notice of an assessment to be given by the trustees of a 
district except when an original valuation is to be made, which Avas 
not done in this case. Nor does it require the collector to give any 
notice whatever that a tax list has been placed in his hands for collec- 
tion. All of the former provisions of law requiring such notices to be 
given have been repealed. 

The appeal is therefore dismissed. 

Per H. S. Randall, May 26, 1853. 

Trustees have the pcver, when in their discretion circumstances require it, to 
establish temporary branch schools in a district, and employ a teacher, with- 
out any vote of the district, and a due proportion of the public money should 
be applied to the payment of such teacher. 

It is, perhaps, to be regretted that the law has left so much to the 
discretion of trustees, in reference to the institution of temporary 
branch schools. Such schools frequently become necessary, owing to 
some extraordinaiy circumstances which for the time being exist in a 
district. Whenever such necessity does arise, the trustees have an 
undoubted right to exercise the discretion which the statute has vested 
in them, by employing a teacher, and opening a temporary school for 
the accommodation of the children, without any vote of the inhabitants. 
In this district the majority of the trustees have, on several occasions, 
determined that such necessity did exist ; and the inhabitants, at their 
annual meetings in 1850 and 1851, have approved that determination 
by directing the application of a part of the public money to the sup- 

[DlGEST.] 10 



14: DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

port of the branch school. The institution of such a school in this dis- 
trict, has also met the approval of the town superintendent of Whites- 
town, as appears from a letter addressed by him to the department, and 
a decided majority of the taxable inhabitants have expressed themselves 
satisfied with the proceedings of the majority of the trustees as appears 
by a petition accompanying the answer. 

Under these circumstances, though it does not clearly appear that all 
the proceedings of the district in relation to the institution of the branch 
school have been, strictly in accordance with law, I am of opinion that 
harmony and good order which are so essential to the prosperity of a 
school will be best secured, and the interests of a majority of the inha- 
bitants be best promoted, by sanctioning the proceedings of the trustees 
in establishing the school in question and allowing a portion of the 
public money to be applied towards its support. 

The proceedings of the trustees are therefore affirmed and the appeal 
dismissed. 

Per H. S. Randall, June 16, 1853 

A supervisor and town clerk cannot act in the formation or alteration of a school 
district, without the presence of the town superintendent. 

The appellants in this case seek to set aside an order made at a 
meeting of the town superintendent of Jefferson, and the supervisors 
and town clerks of Blenheim and Jefi^erson, on tlie 30th day of April 
last, forming a new district, to be composed of parts of District No. 6, 
Jeff"erson, and No. 3, Blenheim. 

From an examination of the papers, I am of the ©pinion there is a 
fatal objection to this order. 

It appears that the town superintendent of Blenheim was not present 
at the meeting of the board, and did not participate in making the 
order. The supervisor and town clerk of that town were members of 
the board, but they had no authority to act without the presence of 
the town superintendent. The statute authorizes them to be associated 
with him in forming or altering school districts. In no case, however, 
does it authorize them to act without him. The board, therefore, had 
no power to alter any district located in that town. 

The order therefore is hereby set aside. 

Per H. S. Randall, August 18, 1853. 

The right of an acting town superintendent to the office will not be inquired into 
collaterally. 

This is an appeal from an order, setting off a portion of vSchool Dis- 
trict No. 8, in the town of Preston, to District No. 2, of the town of 
McDonough. 

The principal ground of appeal, and the only one considered is, that 
Isaac S. Stafford, acting as town superintendent of Preston, had no 
rigtft to assist in making this order, for the reason that he had removed 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. "75 

from the town, and thereby vacated his office. The fact that he was 
the acting town superintendent of Preston, is conceded in the appeal. 

This being the case, his right to hold the office cannot be called in 
question in this proceeding. That is a question which can only be 
tried by an action at law brought for that purpose. The courts have 
uniformly held that the right of a person to a public office cannot be 
inquired into collaterally. 

Under the foi-mer practice, it could only be tested by a writ of " quo 
warranto^ It can now only be tested by an action in the nature of a 
" quo warrantor 

This objection, therefore, to the order is overruled. 

Per H. S. Randall, October 26, 1853. 

This department will set aside the proceedings of a district meeting, when undue 
advantage is taken of those of the inhabitants who do not happen to be pre- 
sent at the precise hour the meeting is called, especially where the custom 
has been to hold open until one hour after the time mentioned in the notice 
before organizing. 

This IS an appeal from the proceedings of the annual meeting held in 
the district on the first day of October last. 

The appellants allege that the meeting was called to be held at six 
o'clock in the evening, at about which time three only of the legal voters 
of the district met at the school-house and immediately organized and 
proceeded to elect officers, and to make a division of the public money 
for the ensuing year ; as soon as this business was transacted they 
adjourned for a year. Soon after and about seven o'clock in the evening, 
several other legal voters appeared at the school-house accompanied by 
one of the trustees, who was prepared to submit his annual report, but 
they found the meeting had been held and adjourned as above stated. 
They further allege that it had been the custom in that district at their 
annual meeting to wait until one hour after the time specified in the 
notice before organizing the meeting. 

As no answer to the appeal has been received, these allegations must 
be deemed established. If they were untrue those who sought to sus- 
tain the proceedings of the meeting were bound to deny them. 

Upon this statement of the facts I am of opinion that the proceed- 
ings of the meeting should be set aside. There was more haste in the 
transaction of the business than was required, and many were doubtless 
led to suppose, by the former practice of the district, that nothing would 
be done before the hour of seven in the evening ; besides an opportunity 
ought to have been given to the trustee whose term expired, to make 
his annual report. It may lead to serious embarrassment and difficulty 
hereafter if it is omitted. 

The proceedings of said meeting are therefore hereby set aside. 
Per H. S. Randall, November 29, 1853. 



"6 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 



The mere act of voting to select a particular piece of land upon which to erect a 
school-house, does not establish the site. It must be followed by an actual 
leasing or purchase. 

The appellants in this case allege, that on the 31st day of May, 1851, 
at a special meeting regularly called, a resolution was passed authorizing 
the selection of a site for building a school-house on the land of Mr. 
Fenner, and the collection of a tax to pay for the same. 

The trustees assessed the tax, and about $45.00 of it was collected, 
but they neglected to purchase the site. On the 12th day of March, 
1853, at a regularly called meeting, a resolution was passed authorizing 
the selection of a site on the land of J. H. Dwick, and a tax of ^350.00 for 
building a school-house. The trustees then took the money which had 
been collected for the purchase of the site first selected, and with it 
purchased the Dwick site. It is claimed by the appellants that it was 
illegal to change the site, after the money had been collected to pay 
for the same ; that no change could be made without the consent of 
the town superintendent, and that it was illegal to use for the 
Dwick site, the money that had been raised for purchasing the 
" Fenner" site. 

In reply to these allegations, the trustees state that after the meeting 
of May 31, 1851, and on the 15th of iVovember of that year, at a special 
meeting legally held, a resolution was passed rescinding the resolution 
of the former meeting, authorizing the selection of a site upon the land 
of Mr. Fenner. At a subsequent special meeting, a resolution was 
passed authorizing the selection of a site upon the land of Mr. Dwick. 
No action was taken at that meeting in reference to the disposition to 
be made of the money which had been raised for the purchase of a site, 
but at the annual meeting held since this appeal was brought, the 
trustees were directed to use the money in the purchase of the " Dwick 
site." 

The case referred to by the appellants, in Barbour's Supreme Court 
Reports (vol. 4, p. 25), in support of their first objection, does not 
sustain the point they raise. The court merely decides that a district 
cannot legally rescind a resolution imposing a tax, after the tax list has 
been made out and the tax partly collected. That decision is in 
accordance with repeated decisions of this department in which it has 
been held, that a district could not legally rescind a resolution confer- 
ring any authority upon the trustees, after they have entered upon the 
performance of the duty imposed by the resolution. But these decisions 
do not touch this case. The resolution authorizing the collection of 
the tax, was distinct and separate from that authorizing the selection of 
the site, and the repeal of the latter in no respect affected the right 
of the trustees to collect the tax. Besides, it is conceded and in fact is 
made the subject of complaint by the appellants, that the trustees had 
not taken any steps towards purchasing the site named in the resolu- 
tion which was rescinded. If they had not, the district clearly pos- 
sessed the power of rescinding the resolution in the manner they did, 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 7Y 

unless their action had so established the site that it could not be 
changed without the consent of the town superintendent. The mere 
act of voting to select a particular piece of land upon which to erect a 
school-house does not establish the site. Something more is necessary 
to accomplish that. The vote must be followed up by an actual leasing 
or purchase. In this case there is no pretense that a title to the site 
could not be procured. But it is alleged that the trustees neglected to 
procure it, although they might have done so, and the district after 
wards took from them the authority to make the purchase. This, I 
think, they had a right to do without the consent of the town superin- 
tendent, if they deemed it proper. I can therefore perceive no ille- 
gality in the proceedings of the meeting, in selecting a site upon the 
land of Mr. Dwick. 

The appeal is therefore dismissed. 

Pel- H. S. Randall, November 29, 1853. 

It is the dutj"- of trustees when requested by a respectable number of the taxable 
inhabitants of their district to call a special meeting for the transaction of 
any legal and proper business, which such petitioners may desire to bring 
before it. 

This is an appeal from the refusal of the respondents to call a special 
meeting of the inhabitants and legal voters of the district for the pur- 
pose of taking into consideration the application and division of the 
public money of said district on the request of twenty taxable inhabi- 
tants thereof. The trustees in their answer set forth certain facts and 
circumstances existing in the district which in their judgment justified 
them in declining to call such meeting and in making such disposition 
of the public money as they should deem expedient. 

This view of the subject cannot in the opinion of the superintendent 
be sustained. It is the duty of the trustees of a school district, when- 
ever requested by a respectable number of inhabitants and legal voters 
of a district, to call a special meeting for the transaction of any legal 
and proper business which such inhabitants may desire to bring before 
it. The object of the petitioners in this case was unquestionably a legal 
and proper one. The inhabitants and legal voters of the district are 
authorized to make such disposition of the public money among the 
several terms of the school as they may judge proper, and it is only 
when they omit to act in the matter that the trustees are empowered to 
exercise their own discretion. If an improper disposition of the public 
money is made by the inhabitants, an adequate remedy is provided 
by appeal to this department. The circumstances, therefore, set 
forth by the trustees in their answer were insufficient to justify them 
in their refusal to call the special meeting called for. The trustees 
therefore are hereby ordered, Avithin five days after the receipt of this 
order, to cause notices to be given for a special meeting of the legal 
voters of the district, to be held within ten days thereafter, for the pur- 
pose of taking into consideration the application and division of the 
public money of said district for the ensuing year, &c. 

Per E. W. Leavenworth. February 28, 1854. 



18 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

"Where trustees give their order for a greater amount of public money to pay a 
teacher tlian is in the superintendetit's hands, and, to malve up the deficiency, 
anticipate tlie public money for a succeeding year, and pay it out of their 
own funds, they are without remedy ; the deficiency should be collected by 
rate bill. 

Tliis is an appeal from the order of the trustees for the amount of 
public money due a teacher employed by them, including a balance of 
$6.50 advanced by one of the trustees on a previous order made at the 
termination of the summer school. The appellants insist that the bal- 
ance should have been raised by rate bill on the inhabitants sending to 
school during that term. 

From the papers in the case it appears that Harriet A. Cooper, a 
legally qualified teacher, was employed by the trustees to teach the 
summer school at $12.00 per month ; that at the expiration of her term 
an order and certificate was drawn on the town superintendent for the 
whole amount of her wages, $36.00, of which $29.50, being the whole 
amount of teachers' money in the hands of the town superintendent 
belonging to the district for the current year, was paid, and the balance, 
$6.50, advanced to the teacher by Mr. Allen, one of the trustees; that 
Miss Cooper, prior to the expiration of the summer term, was reemployed 
for the winter term at $16.00 per month, at the expiration of which, 
and on the 10th of March last, the trustees gave her an order on the 
town superintendent for $62.50, being the amount of her wages for that 
term, with the addition of the $6.50 advanced by Mr. Allen, as aforesaid ; 
and that such order was accepted by the town superintendent, payable 
from the teachers' money to be apportioned to the district for the pre- 
sent year. 

The superintendent is of opinion, under these circumstances, that the 
trustees erred in including in their order and certificate for the winter 
term the balance due on the summer term. After exhausting the public 
money applicable to the latter term, they should have collected the 
balance by rate bill ; if they were at liberty to anticipate the public 
money for a succeeding year by advancing the amount due, they might, 
upon the same principle, continue such a procedure indefinitely, and there- 
by thwart the obvious intention of the law and the views and wishes of the 
inhabitants of the district. The amount in controversy in the present 
case is small, but the principle involved is one of the utmost importance 
to the proper administration of the system of public instruction. 

The trustees are, therefore, hereby directed to amend their order and 
certificate in the hands of the town superintendent, by reducing the 
amount to $56.00, the sum due on the winter term, and to make out a 
rate bill and warrant in the mode prescribed by law for the collection 
of the balance from those who sent to school during the summer term. 

Per E. W. Leavenworth, April 5, 1854, 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 79 

Where inhabitants have been proporly set ofi" from one district to another and the 
town clerk hSs omitted to i-ecord tlie same, tliey will be regarded as inhabi- 
tants of tlie district to which tliey liave been annexed after being acquiesced 
in for five years 

Appeal from the proceedings of a special meeting lield on the 28th 
of March last, authorizing the trustees to levy a tax on the district to 
defray the expense of moving the school-house to the new site or to let 
the job of moving the same to the lowest bidder. The appellants in 
support of the appeal allege, 

That seven persons, Avho attended the meeting and voted, were not 
inhabitants of and legal voters in said district, having been annexed in 
1839 to Joint District No. 1, Blenheim and Fulton, and there being no 
record in the town clerk's office of either of said towns of their subse- 
quent transfer, either to District No. 5 or any other district. 

In reply to this allegation the affidavits of the town superintendents 
of Fulton and Blenheim for the year 1849 are produced, showing that 
the individuals referred to and their property were in the spring of that 
year transferred by them fi'om Joint District No. 1 to District No. 5, 
and that the order made by them to that effect Avas transmitted or deli- 
vered to the town clerks of their respective towns for record. It also 
appears from the affidavit ot the appellants that from that period to the 
present the persons so transferred have acted in and been regarded as 
inhabitants of District No. 5, and their children enumerated therein. 
Under these circumstances and after an acquiescence of five years the 
proof of such transfer must be regarded as sufficient, notwithstanding 
the omission of the town clerks to record the same. 

Per V. M. Rice, May 12, 1854. 

A tax voted for the purchase of a site cannot be raised by installments. A tax list 
for the whole amount must be made out within thirty days from the voting 
of the tax. 

Tliis is an appeal from the proceedings of an adjoarned special meet- 
ing, held on the 4th of May last, at which the site of the school-house 
of the district was changed and a tax of $200.00 voted to build a school- 
house thereon and to fence the site, such tax to be collected in two 
equal installments, one-half on the 1st of September and the remainder 
on the 1st of December next. 

There is an objection appearing upon the face of the proceedings, 
which is fatal to the validity of the vote for raising the tax for pur- 
chasing the site. The supei'intendent is unable to find any authority 
in the school law for raising the amount provided for by the vote of 
the district in two installments, one payable in September and the 
other in December next. When a greater sum than $400.00 is directed 
to be raised for building a school-house, in the manner prescribed by 
§ 71 (No. 93), School Laws, such amount may be raised in equal 
annual installments, as therein provided ; but where the amount to be 
raised is for the purpose of a site, no provision exists for raising such 



80 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

amount by installments, and the law requires the tax list for the wholo 
amount to be made out within thirty days from the v(?ting of the tax. 
The resolution referred to was therefore illegal and invalid for this 
cause, and so much of the proceedings of the special meeting appealed 
from as relates to the raising of the tax of 1200.00 to purchase and 
fence the site, payable in installments, as therein specified, is hereby 
set aside. 

Per V. M. Rice, Supt., June 12, 1854. 

A school district cannot be formed out of the central portion of another district, 
leaving the territory of the latter disconnected. 

This is an appeal from the order of the town superintendent of 
Fremont, Sullivan county, creating a new district (No. 6) from territory 
now known as District No. 5 of said town. 

The appellants raise the following point : 

1. Said order of the tow-n superintendent erects a new district (No. 6) 
in the central portion of District No. 5, thus disjoining the parts of said 
District No. 5. 

Tlie question to be considered is : 

Can a district be formed out of the central portion of another district, 
leaving the former disjointed ? The answer is clearly in the negative, 
as has been the uniform ruling of this department. (See Common School 
Decisions, p. 109.) In the case there cited. Superintendent Dix pro- 
perly remarks that school districts must be formed of contiguous farms. 
If the example of forming them of farms not adjacent to each other 
should be sanctioned, it is difficult to foresee what disorder and confu- 
sion it might not create, besides opening a door to unequal and unjust 
organizations. 

It is therefore decided that the order of the town superintendent, as 
hereinbefore recited, is illegal, and the same is hereby set aside. 
" Per V. M. Rice, September 18, 1854. 

Where one trustee emjjloys a teacher without consulting with his associates, and 
liis action is silently acquiesced in until the expiration of the term, their 
approval of the contract will be implied, and they should sign an order for 
the public money for teachers' wages when applied to. 

This is an appeal taken by a teacher from the action of two of the 
trustees of School District No. 8, in the town of Oxford, Chenango 
county. Said trustees refuse to sign an order upon the town superin- 
tendent of Oxford for the sum of $20.00 to compensate the appellant 
for her services as teacher of the school in said district, upon the ground 
that the appellant was employed in January, 1854, as teacher by George 
Stratton, the third trustee, upon his own responsibility, the respon- 
dents not having been informed by said Stratton of the employment of 
the appellant, nor of the conditions either of time, wages or qualifica- 
tions ; and that therefore appellant is not entitled to any share of the 
public money for the school taught by her last winter. 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 81 

It appears tliat said Harriet Webb was employed by one of the trus- 
tees in his official capacity to teach a public school, in said district at 
the rate of two dollars a week, and that she was so employed ten weeks. 
Neither of the other trustees appear to have dissented. They cannot 
be presumed to have been ignorant of the fact, and must be considered 
as having acquiesced. This is the view which would be taken in any 
court of judicature having jurisdiction of the case. 

The appeal is therefore sustained, and the town superintendent of the 
town of Oxford, is hereby ordered to pay to the said Harriet Webb, for 
her services as teacher in said district, the sum of $20.00 from the share 
of the public money belonging to said district. 

Per V. M. Rice, October 23, 1854. 

An alien, though he has taken the incipient measures to be naturah'zed, is not 
qualified to vote at a school district meeting in the district where he resides, 
unless an affidavit of that fact be filed and recorded in the office of the 
Secretary of State. 

This is an appeal taken by five of the inhabitants from the proceed- 
mgs of a special school district meeting, holden in District No. 6, in the 
town of Montague, Lewis county, in the early part of October, 1854. 

The appellants aver that persons not duly qualified to vote did vote 
at said meeting, and that their votes aff"ected the result. It seems that 
the only material vote of the meeting was carried by two majority, 
whereas the right of three persons to vote, who voted with the majority, 
was doubtful. One of them was a man working for a resident of the 
district, but whether he was of legal age and possessed the other requi- 
site qualifications is by no means certain. 

The other two persons, Messrs. Fuller and Boyd, are aliens, and only 
during the week that the meeting of May, 1854, stood adjourned to, 
did they file their intentions of becoming citizens. An alien, though 
he has taken the incipient measures to obtain naturalization, cannot 
hold real property or be a qualified voter at a school district meeting in 
the district where he resides. 

He is required to make a deposition or affirmation in writing, before 
an officer authorized to take the proofs of deeds to be recorded, that he 
is a resident of and intends always to reside in the United States and 
to become a citizen thereof as soon as he can be naturalized, and that 
he has taken such incipient measures as the laws of the United States 
require to enable him to obtain naturalization, which shall be certified 
by such officer, and be filed and recorded by the Secretary of State in 
a book to be kept by him for that purpose, and such certificate, or a 
certified copy of it, shall be evidence of the facts therein contained. 

As Messrs. Fuller and Boyd did not comply with the requirements 
of the statute, and therefore could not become owners of taxable pro- 
perty, the conclusion becomes a necessary sequence that the vote was 
void. 

Per V. M. Rice, October 30, 1854. 

PDlGEST.] 1 1 



82 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 



The statute directing town superintendents to pay out public money only to quali- 
fied teachers duly employed apon the order of the trustees employing them, 
was enacted for the purpose of preventing embezzlement bj' trustees, and if 
he pays the public money to a trustee or other person than the teacher with- 
out his order, he does it at his peril. 

This is an appeal taken from tlie action of the trustees in School 
District No. 9, in the town of Otto, Cattaraugus county, by a teacher 
duly employed in said district during the last winter, on the ground of 
withholding from him a portion of his salary, amounting to the sum of 
$15.86. The appeal is without answer. 

The appellant testifies that v/hile he was engaged in the employ 
of said trustees, two of them, to wit, Isaac Reed and Daniel R. Grinals, 
wrote an order for the residue of the public money apportioned to said 
District in 1853, making it payable to appellant ; that Reed went with- 
out appellant's knowledge or consent and drew said money in appellant's 
name from the town superintendent of Otto, which money amounted to 
f 15.86, as aforesaid; that when appellant closed his term, said trustees 
(two of them) gave him another order upon said town superintendent 
for $52.56, to be paid in part of the residue of the public money appor- 
tioned in 1854 ; that said superintendent paid $36.64 on said order and 
retained it in his possession, but refused to pay any further amount, 
saying that he had paid the remainder to said Isaac Reed, one of the 
trustees of said district. 

The provision of the law which directs town superintendents to pay 
out public money only to qualified teachers duly employed, upon the 
order of the trustees employing them, was enacted for the express pur- 
pose of preventing the opportunity of embezzlement bj' trustees. If in 
the face of this fact public money is paid to a trustee, in the name of a 
teacher or otherwise, without a properly attested order from the person 
to whom it is due, the town superintendent does it upon his own respon- 
sibility. In the case in controversy, the trustee. Reed, is liable for the 
means by which he obtained the money, and the town superintendent 
of Otto is responsible to School District No. 9 for the amount paid by 
him to Reed, and he must make good the deficiency, looking to Reed 
for reimbursement. 

This appeal is accordingly sustained, and the town superintendent of 
Otto is hereby ordered to pay to said Hosea Edwards, teacher aforesaid, 
the sum of $15.86 claimed by him, and to preserve District No. 9 good 
in that amount, not charging said district for the amount paid illegally 
by him to said Isaac Reed. 

Per V. M. Rice, November 11, 1854. 

Where two trustees employ a teacher, without consulting the third, the contract 
is binding only upon those who send to the school and the trustees making 
the bargain, unless the conduct of ihe third trustee is such that his acquies- 
cence may fairly be inferred. 

This is an appeal of a trustee of School District No. 6, in the town 
pf Vernon, Oneida county, from the action of his two colleagues, upon 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 83 

tlie ground that a teacher has been employed to instruct the school of 
said district, commencing on the 30th day of October last, and to con- 
tinue through the winter, in and relating to which engagement the 
appellant was not consulted, and had no knowledge. The respondents 
acknowledge the fact as charged, pleading that they had no suspicion 
that he would object. 

The basis of this appeal rests upon broad principles, involved in the 
general laws of trust which govern all fiduciary transactions. Contracts 
entered into by all the trustees of a school district, and signed by two 
of them, are binding ; and when so signed, the presence of the third is 
presumed until the contrary is shown. Two trustees can contract 
against the will of the third, if he was duly notified of a meeting of the 
trustees, or was consulted and refused to act. (9 Wendell, 17.) 

The appellant not being consulted in the contract with the teacher, 
Miss Delia A. C. Alford, could in no sense be responsible, unless when 
he discovered the fact he should have acquiesced. 

Yet no fiduciary transaction can exist without all parties to it are 
cognizant. The contract in question is binding only with the respon- 
dents and those sending to the school, but is voia oO far as the trustees 
officially and the district are concerned. 

The appeal is therefore sustained. 

Per V. M, Rice, November 21, 1854. 

Trustees have the power to call special district meetings whenever they shall 
deem it necessary and proper, even though a meeting for the same purpose 
stands adjourned for a period more or less remote. 

This is an appeal taken by three taxable inhabitants of School District 
No. 11, in the town of Skaneateles, Onondaga county, from the proceed- 
ings of the trustees of said district, in relation to a tax levied therein, by 
the order of a special district meeting. The appellants state, that at a 
meeting held in said district, January 14th, 1854, permission having been 
obtained from the town superintendent, a tax of $500.00 was voted for 
the purpose of building an addition to the school-house, which tax was 
duly collected ; that the work was let to two bidders, for $525.00, 
without consulting the district, or being authorized by a special meet- 
ing, thus exceeding their powers ; that at the annual meeting, the dis- 
trict refused to vote a tax for the additional |25.00 ; that a special 
meeting was called for the purpose of voting upon such tax, and held 
on the 18th of November, 1854; which meeting, without entertaining 
the proposition, resolved, by a vote of 19 against 10, to adjourn twenty- 
five weeks ; that directly afterwards, the trustees called another special 
meeting, of whicli they gave notice themselves (the clerk haying refused) ; 
that said meeting was held on the 25th of November, and by a vote of 
24 against 21 levied the said tax of $25.00; that said meeting was 
held in the afternoon, contrary to the usual custom of the district, and 
at a time when a previous meeting, called to consider this vory 
question, stood 9,djourned, 



84 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

There can be no doiibt of tlie authority of the trustees of scbool 
districts to call special meetings whenever they shall deem it necessary 
and proper. 

The statute declares this right in express terms, -without regard to 
the circumstance that a meeting is already called, or stands adjourned 
for a period more or less remote. It is not difficult to imagine cases in 
which the interests of the district would sustain serious damage, if it 
was necessary to defer action till a period fixed by a previous meeting. 
Exigencies often arise, imperatively requiring that the inhabitants of a 
school district assemble within the shortest time practicable, and of 
these the trustees are to be the judges. 

The appeal is dismissed. 

Per V. M. Rice, January 22, 1855. 

Trustees cannot retain moneys in their hands to compensate tliem for sorvices 

whicli they may have rendered as trustees. 
The office is merely honorary. 

The trustees of School District No. 5 have retained in their hands 
different sums, amounting in the aggregate to $16.50, as it is stated in 
the appeal, for their services in bringing teachers to the district, taking 
them to be examined and carrying them home. 

The only case in which a charge for expenses of transporting teachers 
could be sustained, would be where it was part of the contract with the 
teacher that her expenses for traveling should be defrayed. In this 
case they would constitute and should be charged against the teacher as 
wages paid. The trustees are entitled to no remuneration from the 
district for their services in that capacity, the office being purely 
honorary. 

They can retain no money for themselves except when they might 
have paid it for similar services to third persons, and then only for pur- 
poses expressly enumerated in the statute ; carrying teachers to or from 
the place of their employment is not among those purposes. 

The appeal is therefore sustained, and the trustees above named are 
severally ordered to pay to the town superintendent, for the use of the 
district, the amount which appears by the account aforesaid to have 
been illegally expended and retained by them. 

PerV. M. Rice, February 19, 1855. 

Trustees are to assess the road bed of a turnpilce precisely as if that portion of it 
lying in their district belonged to an individual not owning the remainder; 
unless the net annual income of the company over and above all expenses for 
repairs, &c., is less than five per cent upon the original cost, in which case 
the road is exempt from taxation. 

The turnpike company were not assessed upon the town roll, and the 
trustees admit that they gave no notice of the completion of their roll, 
and consequently neither the appellant nor any other person had the 
opportunity of calling for the correction of the valuation of the com- 
pany's property. The appellants swear positively that the property of 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 85 

the company assessed at $600.00 is worth $2000.00, and the respondents 
in their answer show that they assessed it simply as they would agricul- 
tural property at $30.00 per acre, and apparently without allowing any- 
thing for the labor and materials employed in making the land covered 
by the road bed productive and valuable as a turnpike. It is of course 
impossible for the superintendent to judge to what degree this valuation 
may be erroneous. It is sufficient objection, however, that the appel- 
lant has not had the opportunity, which the statute designed to 
secure, of producing such evidence to the trustees as he deemed 
proper to induce them to increase this valuation and thereby lighten 
the burden of his own taxation. The judgment of the supreme court, 
in the case of the "Albany and Schenectady Railroad Company vs. 
Osborn," (12 Barb. Supreme Court Reports, 223), shows that the appel- 
lant is mistaken in supposing that the value of the stock is to control 
the trustees in judging of the value of that portion of the plank road 
in their district. They are to assess the road bed precisely as if that 
portion of it in the district belonged to an individual owner, not owning 
the remainder, unless the net annual income of the company over and 
above all expenses and repairs and collection of tolls is less than five 
per cent upon the original cost of the road, in which case the road is 
exempt from taxation. (Laws of 1854, p. 168.) 

Per V. M. Rice, March 24, 1855. 



In the apportionment of public money, trustees should be governed by the wishes 
of the district ; therefore, when the inhabitants at a district meeting adopt a 
resolution in reference to the apportionment of the public money which 
was not by its terms restricted to one year, the trustees should regard it as 
continuous in its operation. 

It is stated to have been the custom of the district to apply two- 
thirds of the public money to the winter term, and the remainder to 
the summer term. The appellant desires this apportionment to be 
continued. He states that no vote was taken on the subject of a divi- 
sion at the last annual meeting, under the impression probably that 
such direction was in force for a period longer than a year. 

It is not perceived that the statute requires the inhabitants to reite- 
rate their wishes annually in this respect, and as it is a matter in regard 
to which the interests of the district are not liable to change from year 
to year, there is no reason of policy requiring such an interpretation. 
If the last resolution adopted by the district in relation to this subject 
was not by its terms restricted in its operations to a year, or some 
other definite period, the trustees should regard it as still in force and 
as furnishing the rule for their action. 

As it does not appear from the appeal what the fact may be in rela- 
tion to this point, the superintendent can only indicate the principle 
which should govern. 

It is inferred, from the statements of the appeal, to be quite probable 
that a portion of the $52.00, said to be due to the teacher for wages, 
was earned by service rendered prior to the 1st day of last January, in 



86 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

whicli case it should not be compensated from the money apportioned 
this year, but a rate bill should be issued, the amount collected upon 
which shall be employed to remunerate said teacher, or to replace the 
sum, if it has been borrowed from the apportionment of this year. 
The appeal is sustained. 

Per E. P. Smith, Dep. Supt., April 24, 1855. 

Where there is a deliberate omission to notify any taxable inhabitant of a special 
district meeting, at which a tax is voted to change site and build a new 
school-house, this department will hold the tax list inoperative as to those 
so omitted to be notified. 

The appellants were set off to District No. 8, on the 17th of January 
last, by an order, to take effect on the 1st day of May instant. After 
the making of this order, several meetings were held in District No. 4, 
of which the appellants had no notice, and which they did not attend^ 
under an apparent belief, on all hands, that they had ceased to be 
voters in that district. At these meetings the site of No. 4 was changed 
to a point more remote from the appellants than its former situation, 
and a tax of $400.00 was authorized for building a new school-house. 
On the 9th of March, three of the appellants were served with a written 
notice that a meeting of Joint District No. 4, Scott and Sempronius, 
would be held on the 16th of that month, the notice not specifying the 
object of the meeting. At that meeting resolutions were passed, reci- 
ting that doubts were expressed in regard to the legality of the calls of 
the meeting before referred to, and reaffirming and adopting the votes 
for the release of the old site, the location of the new one, and for a tax 
of $400.00. Under the authority of this last meeting, the trustees have 
made out a tax list, including the appellants, from which and from the 
proceedings of such meeting the latter appeal. 

The facts are presented upon an agreed statement signed by the 
appellants and trustees. There appears to have been a deliberate omis- 
sion to notify the appellants of the meetings subsequent to January 
l7th, and an omission to give them a notice of the object of the 
meeting of March 16th, which, taken in connection with the manifest 
injustice of subjecting them to taxation for a school-house from which 
they are to receive no benefit, are sufficient grounds for declaring the 
tax list inoperative as against them. 

The appeal is therefore sustained so far as the same relates to the tax 
list, and the trustees are authorized and directed to correct and amend 
the same by striking out the names of the appellants, and apportioning 
the amount of taxes assessed to them upon the remaining taxable inha- 
bitants and property of such district, in proportion to the valuation 
thereof. 

Per E. P. Smith, Dep. Supt., May 9, 1855. 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 81 

Town superintendents have no authority to alter the boundaries of a school dis- 
trict, if the same have been established by this department upon appeal, until 
after the lapse of three years from the time they were so established, without 
express permission of the State Superintendent. 

The appellants, in making tlieir annual report, enumerated among tlie 
children of their district the five children of Mr. William Raynor. In 
making his apportionment, the town superintendent deducted these 
children from the enumeration of District No. 22, on the ground that 
they and their father were residents of the adjoining district, No. 21. 
The trustees of the latter district answer the appeal. 

It appears from the evidence that the farm of Mr. Raynor was taken 
from District No. 22, some five or six years since, and annexed to district 
No. 21, by an order of the town superintendent, that officer not being 
aware that the line between the said districts had been established in 
1830, by the State Superintendent, upon appeal. 

It has been held that town superintendents have no power to alter 
the boundaries of a school district if the same have been established by 
this department, upon appeal, unless consent shall have been previously 
given by the State Superintendent for such alteration. This rule was 
established to prevent the decisions of the department from being 
deprived of any practical effect, as might be the case if, immediately 
after the decision, a new order could be made precisely or substantially 
similar to the one which has been set aside. 

This reason fails, however, when lapse of time and a consequent 
change of circumstances may have made the reasons no longer appli- 
cable which controlled the decision. As this is a subject of regulation, 
it will hereafter be held that, after a lapse of three years from the time 
when the boundary of a district shall have been established by this 
department, upon appeal, it shall no longer be requisite to apply for 
express permission of the State Superintendent to authorize a local 
officer to make an alteration of the same. 

In the case under consideration the appeal should be sustained, with- 
out reference to the above mentioned objection. It is the duty of the 
town superintendent to apportion the public money according to the 
number of children in the several districts " as the same shall have 
appeared from the last annual reports of the trustees," and not other- 
wise. If he deems the report incorrect it is proper for him to call upon 
the trustees to correct it, and if they refuse to do so, they may, perhaps, 
render themselves liable to the penalty imposed for willfully signing a 
false report, with the intention of causing the town superintendent to 
apportion and pay to their district a larger sum than its just proportion 
of the school moneys of the town. The report, however, is conclusive 
until it shall be amended by the trustees, or the question be determined 
on appeal. 

Per V. M. Rice, May 12, 1855. 



88 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

The drawing of an order for public money is a ministerial act, whicli does not 
necessarily require the presence of the entire board of trustees. 

The drawing of an order is a ministerial act, which does not necessarily 
require the presence of the entire board of trustees. It is simply the 
execution of a contract, which is obligatory upon all of them, if, as is to 
be presumed, the contract was regularly made. Its validity is not 
questioned by the appellant. 

The respondents aver that Mr. Payne had refused to act with one of 
them, and present this as a reason for not consulting him upon drawing 
the order. 

This would not excuse the omission if the act was one which 
involved the exercise of judgment, and therefore required a meeting of 
the entire board. A trustee cannot be permitted to retain his office as 
a mere obstruction to his colleagues. If he cannot act with his asso- 
ciates, he should resign ; and if, without resigning, he neglects to perform 
the duties of his office, it is the duty of the town superintendent to pro- 
secute him for the penalty imposed by the statute. But until he has 
resigned or been superseded, his colleagues should call upon him regu- 
larly to take part in their official action, to the end that when his 
neglect and contumacy shall be established by reiterated refusals, an 
application may be made to the State Superintendent for his removal. 

Per V. M. Rice, Supt., June 26, 1855. 

The statute authorizes the asssociation of the town clerk and supervisor with 

the town superintendent, upon the application of the trustees of any district 

to be affected by their action. 
If only one trustee make such application, such board does not obtain jurisdiction 

of the subject matter ; the application of a majority or all of such trustees 

is necessary. 

In this case, districts situated in both towns being affected by the 
proposed order, a single trustee of District No. 2, in Halfmoon, and of 
Joint Districts No. 8 and 18, in Halfmoon and Waterford, applied to 
the supervisors and town clerks of the two towns to be associated with 
the superintendents in their deliberations. The order was made by this 
board, thus assembled, and the answer sustaining and defending it is 
signed by every member. 

The appellants insist that the board was entirely destitute of jurisdic- 
tion. The statute authorizes the association of the town clerks and 
supervisors with the town superintendents only upon application of the 
trustees of any district to be affected by the proposed action. If a ma- 
jority of the trustees of any one district make the application, it cannot 
be doubted that jurisdiction is given as to all ; in this case, however, 
a majority of the trustees of no district made the application, and the 
supervisors and town clerks, composing a majority of the board, had no 
authority whatever in the premises. 

Considerable research has failed to discover any adjudged case in 
which the precise point here presented has been determined. It is, 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 89 

however, believed to be impossible, in accordance with general princi- 
ples, to sustain an order made by a tribunal, which in its constitution as 
a whole has no jurisdiction, although including persons, as in the case of 
the two town superintendents, who acting alone by themselves would 
have possessed the requisite authority, and although these persons all 
concur in the order, and nothing appears showing that their judgment 
was in any degree controlled or their deliberations affected by the pre- 
sence of third parties. 

The difficulty is, that it must always be practically impossible to ascer- 
tain whether the decision is in fact the unbiassed judgment of those to 
whom the duty of making it has been committed by law. It may be 
said that a judicial officer is not only blameless but praiseworthy for seek- 
ing to enlighten his own mind by the suggestions of disinterested and 
intelligent advisers. There is a manifest difference, however, between 
his voluntary application, which is consistent with that judicial inde- 
pendence which it is so important to preserve, and his being subjected 
to the influence of persons claiming to deliberate with him as a matter of 
right. It is, moreover, an element in the policy of the law, that all 
persons required to exercise judgment for the public good should be 
held to an individual responsibility, and not be permitted to diminish it 
by distributing a part of the burden among others. 

The appeal is sustained. 

Per V. M. Rice, July 14, 1855. 

Trustees cannot give notice for themselves, and receive it for the district as trus- 
tees, of an application to be set off to another district, and assent to being 
set off in their official capacity. They cannot act in a two- fold capacity. 

The appellants state that two of the trustees of their district made 
application to the town superintendent, without giving notice to their 
colleague, that their own lands might be set off to District No. 5, and 
that upon that application, without consent of the other trustee, the 
order was made setting off one of them, Mr. Southworth. It does not 
appear, although it may be surmised, that Mr, Ellis is the other trustee 
thus applying. If siich was the fact, there would be no notice, in a 
proper sense, to any trustee of the district. When they applied to be 
separated, it was in their individual capacity and not in their official 
character. 

They were acting, '■'■prima facie^'' not in behalf of but against the 
district ; applying as private individuals to be set off, and assenting to 
being set off in the capacity of representatives of a constituency that may, 
if the practice should be tolerated, be without an opportunity of opposing. 
It follows, therefore, that notice to them has no effect whatever upon 
the rights of the district. There is no evidence in this case that any 
written notice of the order has been served upon the third trustee, or 
in fact upon any trustee. The contrary is to be presumed, from the 
fact that one of the answers sets up their application and consent as 
dispensing with such notice. The order, then, has not taken effect, 

[Digest.] 12 



90 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

There exists a manifest objection to impairing the resources of a 
feeble district to swell those of one relatively stronger, and it is against 
the settled ruling of this department. 

The appeal is therefore sustained. 

Per E. P. Smith, Dep. Supt., July 19, 1855. 

The right to vote at a school district meeting does not depend upon the fact that 
the person offering to vote has been actually taxed, but rather upon his 
liability to taxation. 

. A motion to reconsider a vote of a district meeting may be made by a person 
voting with the minority, unless the meeting have a different rule. 

The objections of the appellants are, that two persons voted at the 
district meeting, for the change of site, who are not enrolled upon the 
tax list as taxable inhabitants ; that by the list referred to, there are 
twenty-six taxable inhabitants ; that only twelve " taxable inhabitants" 
voted in favor and twelve against the resolution changing the site ; 
that the motion to reconsider a former resolution adopted at a previous 
meeting, in regard to the site, was made by a person who, at such pre- 
vious meeting, voted against the resolution of Avhich he moved a recon- 
sideration. 

The rule of legislative proceedings, which requires a motion for 
reconsideration to be made by one who voted with the prevailing 
party, is not binding upon the district meetings, unless expressly adopted 
by them. There is, therefore, no force in the objection based upon a 
departure from this rule, as it does not appear to have been acted upon 
by the inhabitants of District No. 14. 

The respondents allege that fourteen persons voted for the change of 
site. This is not inconsistent with the allegation of the appellants, for 
they acknowledge that twelve " taxable inhabitants" thus voted, and 
they aver that two persons whom they deny to be legal voters also 
voted for the resolution. It was then properly passed, provided the 
two persons named had a right to vote. Their title is impeached, on 
the naked ground that they are not enumerated on the tax list. This 
evidence is not sufficient to bar their right to vote, which depends not on 
the fact that they are actually taxed, but upon their liability to taxation ; 
besides, they may have been qualified as being authorized to vote at 
town meetings, and having paid a rate bill within a year, although 
possessing no property liable to taxation. It devolves upon the appel- 
lants to disclose affirmatively such grounds of objection to one who has 
been admitted to vote, as, if taken for true, in the very words stated, will 
repel every presumption by which his claim might be sustained, by 
showing the absence of some essential qualification. This the appellants 
have failed to do, and the objection must be disregarded and the appeal 
dismissed. 

Per E. P. Smith, Dep. Supt., September 15, 1855. 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 91 

Town superintendents should always give notice to the trustees of their intention 
to consider any proposed alteration of their district, so that they may have 
an opportunity of associating with him the supervisor and town clerk. 

On tlie 4tli day of April, 1855, the appellees made an order for alter- 
ing the district, by setting off all that portion situated in the town of 
Independence, without obtaining the consent or giving notice to the 
trustees. The original order stated that it was to take effect on the 
1st day of May, but in the copy served on the appellant this provision 
was omitted. 

The district was established upon an appeal by the State Superintendent 
in 1844, and no permission was obtained for its alteration. No answer 
is put in by the town superintendent. 

Without considering the expediency of the order, it is sufficient for 
the decision of the case that the proceedings are entirely irregular. The 
order could not take effect until three months after service of notice 
thereof upon the trustees of the several districts affected by the same, 
except by their assent duly obtained to its provisions. 

The appellant is correct in believing that town superintendents should 
always give notice of their intention to consider a proposed alteration, 
so that the trustees may have the opportunity of associating the super- 
visor and town clerk in the proceedings and of urging their own objec- 
tions ; Superintendent Benton declares that an omission in this respect 
renders the order void. 

The appeal is therefore sustained and the order of the town superin- 
tendent vacated. 

Per V. M. Rice, May 28, 1855. 

The general rule is, that the residence of the parents is the residence of their chil- 
dren who are for the time being at service under a temporary engagement 
or for a period of uncertain duration. Exceptions considered. 

The appellant objects that two persons who performed daily chore 
work in his family and attended the school in District No. 6, but whose 
permanent residence was in another district, were excluded from receiv- 
ing any reduction of their rates by the public money. He acknowledges 
his liability to pay for the tuition of one of them, Harriet Osterhout, 
but avers that he gave express notice that he would not be liable for that 
of the other, who is her brother, Daniel Osterhout. He also submits an 
affidavit from the father of these children, stating that the contract in 
relation to Daniel was that he should be permitted to attend school for 
five days in each week, and that he should work for the appellant upon 
the sixth and whenever out of school on other days. 

There is often considerable difficulty in determining whether servants 
employed from other districts, whose engagement is temporary or of 
uncertain duration, should be enumerated where their employer or 
where their parent resides. The general rule unquestionably is, that the 
residence of their parents is the residence of employees. There is an 
exception, however, in the case of children who may be at sewice in 



92- DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

this state, but whose parents reside in some other state of this Union or 
in a foreign land. In such instances they are to be reported in the dis- 
tricts in which they actually reside at the date of the report, although 
that residence may be temporary. It is, however, expressly declared 
that the report " shall not include children belonging to the family of 
any person who shall be an inhabitant of any other district in this state, 
in which such children may, by law, be included in the reports of its 
trustees." 

It is not consistent with the policy of the school law to allow the 
resources of a district to be impaired or rendered uncertain, by the 
capricious withdrawal therefrom, for a season, of children whose parents 
may prefer the school of a neighboring district. On the other hand, 
the state has the same interest in the education of those persons whose 
circumstances require them to resort to domestic service for a livelihood, 
as in that of more fortunate children. It is sound policy to encourage 
their employers to permit their attendance at school, by rendering its 
expense as little onerous as possible. If they are apprenticed during 
their minority, or if manumitted by their parents, and working for their 
own behalf, they ought clearly to be enumerated in the district where 
their employer resides, and tlieir tuition bills should be canceled or 
reduced by its public money. 

In other instances the question may turn upon the point whether their 
presence in the district has for its principal object domestic service in a 
family, and their attendance at school is a mere incident, or whether 
the attendance at school is the principal inducement, and the service a 
mere incident to such attendance. It is impossible to lay down a rule 
with the requisite precision to meet all cases. 

In the case now in controversy, the evidence is insufficient to render 
the superintendent quite sure that a correct decision is rendered. It is 
therefore not proper to interfere with the action of the respondents. 

The two children may have been enumerated in No. 6, where theii 
father resides ; it is affirmed by the respondents that this actually was 
the case. Even though they had also been wrongfully enumerated in 
District No. 6, it would remain in the power of the trustees, upon being 
convinced that they were non-residents, to exclude them from the 
benefit of the public money. 

It is denied that the appellant gave notice that he would not be res- 
ponsible for the tuition of Daniel Osterhout ; but in case he had the 
general control of him as a servant, the permission to attend the school 
is sufficient to render him responsible. If on the other hand, the con- 
tract of hiring required him to allow Daniel to attend school, he must 
be regarded as having contemplated the legal liability which it would 
impose upon him, and as having regarded the youth's services as a just 
equivalent. It is by no means to be supposed that the appellant expected 
to obtain those services at the expense, in any degree, of the district. 

The appeal is therefore dismissed. 

Per V. M. Rice, May 25, 1855. 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 93 

Presumptively, the trustees of a school district have no right to go beyond the 
boundaries of their district to tax ; and when they do, it lies upon them to 
establish the power to tax, and not upon the party taxed to disprove it. 

The trustees, in the answer, rely upon the fact that the appellant did 
not show that he claimed a reduction of his tax, or that Le notified 
them of the alienation of the property by the taxation of which he is 
aggrieved. They do not deny any of the facts set up in the appeal. 

The appellant avers that, about two months previous to the making 
out of the tax list, he had sold the southern part of lot No. 35 (120 
acres), in parcels, to two persons, who took possession and resided upon 
it. It is not within the limits of District No. Y, but adjoins land owned 
by the appellant in that district. This is the only circumstance in 
support of the authority of the respondents to tax it. The statute, how- 
ever, requires that it should be owned or possessed by a taxable inhabi- 
tant of their district at the time of making out such list. 

The power being in derogation of common right, which would exempt 
all land from being taxed elsewhere than in the district where it lies, 
must be construed rigidly. The possession of the purchasers is of itself 
notice of their rights and should put the trustees upon inquiry. 

While the last assessment roll is to guide them in the valuation of 
any property which they may be authorized to tax, unless the right to a 
reduction of such a valuation be established, it cannot in the nature of 
things establish the liability of such property to taxation. Presump- 
tively, the trustees have no right to go beyond their district limits; when 
they do so, it lies upon them to establish the power, and not upon the 
party taxed to disprove it or to take notice that it is about to be exer- 
cised unless he remonstrates. 

The appeal must be sustained. 

Per V. M. Kice, February 28, 1855. 

A consultation of two trustees, without the presence and advice of the third, can 
result in nothing which can be regarded as the action of the board, unless 
the third has been regularly notified and fails to be present. 

The controversy, in this case, respects the validity of the contracts 
with three different teachers. No one of them has been engaged in a 
legal manner, for in no case have the trustees met and consulted 
together. 

A consultation of two trustees meeting by themselves, without the 
presence and advice of the third, can result in nothing which can be 
regarded as the action of the board, unless the third trustee has been 
regularly notified of a meeting, and continues absent after his colleagues 
have waited a reasonable time for his attendance. 

The trustees cannot delegate any discretionary power to a third per- 
son to execute the decision to which they may have arrived ; still less 
can any one of them do so, although they may doubtless employ the 
services of a messenger to convey to a proposed teacher intelligence of 
a positive and unconditional determination ; but this for the sake of cer- 



94 . DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

tainty, and to preserve the evidence of the matter, should be reduced to 
writing and authenticated by the signatures of a raajority. 

It results in this case that without reference to who may be the legal 
trustees, none of them have contracted with any teacher in a manner 
rendering their acts obligatory upon the district. Whether they have 
rendered themselves personally responsible to the proposed teacher is a 
different question, which it is not necessary now to consider. 

The principles herein stated will guide the trustees in contracting 
with a teacher ; any two of them may fix the time and place of a meet- 
ing for the purpose of acting upon this subject, giving the third trustee 
not less than forty-eight hours' notice of the time and place fixed upon, 
and the object of the meeting. 

They should examine the certificates of such teachers as may bo pro- 
posed, and receive from them written propositions specifying the period 
for which they offer to teach, the amount of their salary, and the manner 
in which they are to be paid ; and should make and sign a written memo- 
randum — indorsed upon the written proposition which may be accepted, 
or repeating it in terms which will identify it — of their action in the 
premises, filing the same with the district clerk. 

This appeal is sustained. 

Per V. M. Rice, February 23. 1855. 

An annual meeting appointed for the 11th July having been noticed for the 10th, 
but adjourned to the 11th for the transaction of business, held to be legal. 

An estimate of expenditures must be submitted to vote, item by item. 

An item " for sexton, ^50 " held to be illegal, being for an officer and purpose 
unknown to the law, 

Where notice was given of an annual meeting to be held on the 10th 
of July, and, it being doubtful whether the last preceding annual meet- 
ing had not fixed the 11th day of July for that purpose, the meeting 
was adjourned to the latter day without the transaction of any business 
except the appointment of a chairman, it was held that the meeting of 
the 11th was regular and its proceedings valid, whether the 10th or the 
11th was the true time appointed for the annual meeting. 

It was also held that, whether the chairman elected on the 10th had 
or had not the right to preside on the 11th by virtue of such election, 
the acquiescence of the voters in his presidency was equivalent to a new 
election. 

The trustees having presented an estimate for several heads of expen- 
diture, amounting in the aggregate to $1800.00, and the vote having been 
taken thereupon by asking each inhabitant when he deposited his ballot 
for district officers whether he voted " tax" or " no tax," without in any 
other manner submitting the propriety of the items severally, it was held 
that the tax payers have the right, not only to fix the amount of their 
contributions but to specify the precise object to which every part thereof 
should be appropriated. The question should be submitted to them in 
such a form that every one may have the opportunity of offering amend- 
ments increasing or diminishing the amount to be appropriated to any 
of the enumerated objects, or of striking out. The proceedings not 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 95 

having been conducted in such a way as substantially to preserve this 
right, but on the contrary apparently to subject the voters to the dilem- 
ma of voting for the estimate as an entire proposition or voting against 
every part of it, they were held irregular, and were annulled. 

One of the items in the estimate being " for sexton, $50," it was held 
that the term sexton being unknown to the law as the designation of any 
district officer, the duties expected of him ought to have been so defined 
by the resolution as to show upon its face an intention to appropriate 
the money for services, like cleaning the school-house, making fires, &c., 
which are legitimate objects of taxation. It is not competent to a dis- 
trict meeting to create a new office having a salary attached to it, though 
it is competent to vote compensation for services, not incumbent upon 
the recognized district officers, but which are proper objects of expenditure. 

Per E. P. Smith, Dep. Supt., October 2, 1855. 

The power to admit to the district schools non-resident puijils is vested by 
statute in the trustees exclusively. 

The inhabitants of District No. 1, Elba, at their annual meeting, 
September 4, 1855, passed a resolution to exclude non-resident children 
from the district school. An appeal was brought. 

So much of the resolution as assumes to close the school against 
pupils from other districts is unauthorized. The trustees are invested 
with the power to admit such pupils by the express terms of the statute. 
It is their duty to prescribe the conditions of admission, and they ought 
to be such as to indemnify the district against any increased expense 
resulting from the attendance of non-residents. Proper security, more- 
over, ought to be taken in advance for the payment of any bills for 
tuition, to which such pupils may be subjected, as they cannot be col 
lectcd upon a rate bill or by warrant. 

Per E. P. Smith, Dep. Supt., October 20, 1855. 

In making out a tax list, all the trustees must be consulted and act together. 

Two of the trustees of District No. 1, Hornby, Steuben county, made 
out a tax list, without notifying or consulting with the third. The 
other trustee and Mr. Chalion Headley appealed, and asked that the 
said tax list be set aside, without pointing out any error or alleging any 
special grievance. 

It is a clear and undoubted principle that the public have the right to 
the counsel and service of all the members of a board of trustees, and 
of every other tribunal, in all their doings which involve the exercise 
of discretion and judgment. The making out of a tax list is of this 
character. The trustees have to determine who are taxable inhabitants, 
and for what amount they shall be respectively assessed. It is true that, 
upon examination, they may ascertain that the taxable inhabitants of 
their district are the same persons and no other than those enmiierated 
in the last completed town assessment roll, and that their property res- 
pectively remains, without any variation, as it did at the time such roll 



96 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

was completed. That determination having been reached, the duty of 
copying so much of the assessment roll as relates to the inhabitants and 
property of their district is a purely clerical one, which may as well be 
discharged by one trustee as by three. It is, however, always a preli- 
minary question, whether such be the fact, and the public have an inte- 
rest that each of the trustees should be heard upon this question. A 
trustee who is absent might know and be able to show his colleagues 
that a particular inhabitant had received a large accession to his personal 
property, and thus reduce the contribution of every other tax payer. 

The appeal is therefore sustained and the proceedings of the trustees 
declared irregular. 

Per E, P. Smith, Dep. Supt., November 8, 1855. 

The town clerk and supervisor have no power to review an order to alter a school 
district. 

The town superintendent of Bolton had divided District No. 5, in 
said town, without the consent of the trustees. The latter applied to the 
town clerk and supervisor to review the order for such division, and 
from their refusal brought an appeal to the Superintendent of Public 
Instruction. 

The supervisor and town clerk were correct in holding that they had 
no jurisdiction to review an order made by the town superintendent. 
The statute provides that these officers may, upon application of the 
trustees, associate themselves with the superintendent in determining 
upon a proposed alteration of a school district. It is implied, from this 
provision, that the trustees ought to have such notice of a contemplated 
alteration as would enable them to exercise their right in this respect. 
The statute, however, does not prescribe su.ch notice or regulate the 
manner in which it shall be given ; in fact, the trustees might themselves 
desire an alteration which they knew the superintendent to regard as 
inexpedient, and it is obvious that, in such case, it would devolve upon 
them to give notice to him and not to expect one. The spirit of the 
statute is satisfied whenever it appears in any way that the trustees have 
had the opportunity of availing themselves of the counsel of the super- 
visor and clerk, instead of trusting the matter to the unaided judgment 
of the superintendent. 

In this case it clearly appears, indeed it is not denied, that previous 
to the making of the order in question, the supervisor, town clerk and 
superintendent were assembled upon an informal call of the inhabitants 
to consider the subject of an alteration ; that the trustees were present 
and had their attention distinctly called to the fact that the town clerk 
and supervisor could act only on their application, and that they stood 
mute. The objection comes with an exceedingly bad grace from them, 
that they have been deprived of the opportunity to do that which they 
had refused to do when it was in their power. It is entitled to no 
weight whatever. 

Per V. M. Rice, December 1, 1855. 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 97 

A candidate for a teacher's certificate should be examined as to learning, morals 

and ability to teach. 
When a candidate is refused a certificate on the alleged ground of " feelings of 

dissatisfaction on the part of some of the patrons of the school," a new 

examination will be ordered. 

The town superintendent of Burns, Allegany county, refused Miss 
Jane E. Gilbert a certificate of qualification as a teacher, from which refusal 
she appealed. 

The evidence in this case renders it exceedingly difficult to ascertain 
precisely upon what grounds Miss Gilbert was refused a certificate. It 
tends to show that the superintendent expressed himself satisfied with 
her education and literary acquirements. If he entertained doubts as 
to her capacity to impart instruction, the testimony fails to show that 
he took proper measures, by visiting her school or otherwise, to arrive 
at an intelligent conclusion on this point. In a letter to her, he referred 
to " feelings of dissatisfaction on the part of the patrons of the school," 
as having been considered by him in arriving at his determination to 
withhold a certificate. Such feelings or opinions were no proper guide 
to the superintendent, and should, have had no other effect than to 
induce greater care to examine the foundation of them for himself, and 
decide upon his own knowledge and responsibility. Their existence 
may be a proper element of consideration, in determining the trustees 
of a particular district to forego the services of a qualified teacher, but 
they are no test of competency, and should not have the effect (as they 
do, if adopted by the superintendent) of excluding a teacher from every 
district in the town. It follows, that no good reason has been shown 
on the part of the superintendent for withholding the certificate. On 
the other hand, it is possible that his conclusion is correct, although 
founded upon insuflicient evidence ; and there is not such affirmative 
testimony of Miss Gilbert's entire fitness to teach, before the department, 
as to warrant it in ordering the superintendent to certify to her quali- 
fications. To justify this, it should have such knowledge as would 
induce the State Superintendent himself to grant a certificate. 

The appeal can be sustained only so far as to relieve Miss Gilbert 
fi"om the imputation that a valid judgment has been passed against her 
qualifications. Perhaps this condition of things should be satisfactory, 
as she is entitled, of course, to an examination in any other town where 
she may be a candidate for employment as an instructress. If, however, 
she is still desirous to act as a teacher in the town of Burns, she may 
present herself for examination before Wm. W. Payne, late town super- 
intendent of Burns, Samuel W. Swaine, of Swainsville, and any other 
of the former superintendents of Burns whom those gentlemen (who 
are hereby requested to act in the premises) may select. They will, 
in case of their acceptance of this commission, appoint a time and place 
for such examination, and cause reasonable notice thereof to be given 
to Mr. Whitney, that he may attend the same, if so disposed. All fur- 
ther directions are reserved until the coming in of the report of such 
committee, or further order. 

Per V. M. Rice, December 7, 1855. 

[Digest.] 13 



98 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 



Wh6n a district has been altered, the site of the school-house may be changed 
by a vote of the majority of those present at the meeting. 

The statute confers power to vote a tax to purchase a site or build a school-house 
at any meeting, although no notice may have been given of such intention. 

Due notice of a meeting will be presumed, unless the contrary be shown. 

A special meeting of Joint District No. 9, of Manlieim, Herkimer 
county, and Oppenheim, Fulton county, was held December 19, 1854, and 
a vote was passed to change the site of the school-house. The meeting 
then adjourned to receive propositions. On the 23d day of June, 1855, a 
new site was designated, and at a subsequent adjourned meeting, an 
adjournment to the 2d Tuesday of October, 1856, was carried. 

The trustees, however, called a special meeting for December 4, 
1855, at which a tax of $450.00 was raised for purchasing the new site, 
llOOO.OO for building a new school-house, and $200.00 for wood-house 
and privies. The certificate of the town superintendent, that $1200.00 
was necessary for the house and outhouses, had been given. 

The appellant raised the following points : 

1. That the school-house site was illegally changed, no consent of the 
town superintendent having been obtained. 

It might suffice to say that no such point was made in the appeal ; 
but it is conclusively met by the reply of the trustees, which shows that 
the district has undergone repeated alterations since the erection of the 
school-house. No consent of the superintendent was necessary to 
authorize the fixing of a new site by a majority of the votes of those 
present and voting. 

2. That a meetinjy which had under consideration the same matters 
as those brought before the meeting of December 4, 1855, having 
adjourned to a future day, the inhabitants were in the mean time 
incompetent to act upon them. 

The answer is this, that the trustees are authorized to call a special ' 
meeting "whenever they shall deem it necessary and proper." No 
resolution of any meeting can deprive them of this power. The inha- 
bitants assembled under such call are then " lawfully assembled." And 
the statute confers upon them, when lawfully assembled at any district 
meeting, the power to vote a tax for the purchase of a site and for the 
building of a school-house, and the necessary appendages. As the 
statute authorizes such a vote, and also a vote to sell a former site (pro- 
vided only that the site shall have been legally changed " at any district 
meeting"), it clearly dispenses with the necessity of any special notice 
as a condition precedent of its jurisdiction. It would be another and 
diflferent question, if there were any pretense that the voters were 
actually and designedly surprised by the unexpected introduction of so 
important a subject. There is no ground for such an allegation in this 
case. 

3. The appellant objects, that it does not appear by the return of the 
district clerk, or otherwise, that the legal voters of the district, or any 
of them, were duly notified of such meeting. The burden of proof on 
this point rests on the appellant. The presumption always is that public 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 99 

officers liave done their duty. Tliis presumption is supported in this 
case by the express statement that one voter received no notice, for it 
implies that no other failure to give notice could be alleged. Those 
who attended certainly had notice, and the omission in a solitary instance, 
is not averred to have been willful or fraudulent. 
The proceedings were legal and regular. 

Per V. M.'Rice, February 6, 1856. 

A tax by installments cannot be raised for any other purpose than " for building, 
hiring or purchasing a school-house," and then the tax cannot be raised by 
installments, unless it exceeds ^iOO.OO. 

District No. 3, Berlin, Rensselaer county, at a meeting held Decem- 
ber 20, 1855, voted to repair their school-house, build privy and fence, 
and move the house, and that the tax for such purpose should be raised 
by two annual installments. 

The law does not permit the vote of a tax to be raised by installments, 
for any other purpose than that of building, hiring or purchasing a 
school-house, and even in that case the tax must not be raised by install- 
ments unless it exceeds $400.00. 

Per V. M. Rice, February 9, 1856. 

A vote will not be set aside because of illegal votes, when they do not affect the 
result. 

At the election of a trustee in District No. 2, Rochester, Ulster 
county, January 15, 1856, four illegal votes were cast for the successful 
candidate, who, however, had ten majority. 

The reception of the four illegal votes did not affect the result, and 
the appeal must be dismissed. 

Per E. P. Smith, Dep. Supt., February 28, 1856. 

It is the duty of the trustees to employ a competent teacher, and have a school 

in their district at least six months in a year. 
Trustees should not be teachers. 

The trustees of District No. 8, Preston, Chenango county, had, for a 
long period neglected to employ a teacher, and no school had been kept 
in the district, except for a few days, by one of the trustees. They were 
requested, December 26, 1855, by all the taxable inhabitants of the dis- 
trict, to employ a teacher, but had neglected to do so. 

An appeal from their neglect was taken and they failed to make a 
legal answer. 

It is a matter of course, under the circumstances, that the appeal shall 
be sustained, and the trustees required to proceed without delay to 
engage a teacher who shall be in possession of a proper certificate of 
qualification before commencing his labors. 

It is proper to remark, that while the employment of a trustee as 
teacher is nowhere prohibited,, and his assumption of the task of instruct- 
ing the scho<jl may, under some circumstances, be highly praiseworthy, yet 



100 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

the practice is to be discouraged. The fact that the teacher is one of the 
board that employs him, and fixes his wages, necessarily gives room to 
a suspicion that he may have been able to make a contract more advan- 
tageous to himself and less advantageous to the district, than if some 
third party had been employed. Those who represent the public should 
never put themselves in a situation where their private interests may 
conflict with those of their constituents. 

Per V. M. Rice, March 18, 1856. 

Land worked under a contract, by which the lessee is to share in the produce 
thereof, is subject to taxation in the district where it is situated. 

The appellant is the owner of lot No. 34, included in the boundaries 
of District No. 9, Wirt, Allegany county, and also of lot No. 26, which 
adjoins it, but is included within the boundaries of District No. 1, and 
is in the occupation of an inhabitant of District No. 1, holding under a 
lease, by which he renders a share of the produce to the appellant. 
The statute expressly provides that any person working land under a 
contract for a share of the produce of such land, shall be deemed the 
possessor, so far as to render him liable to taxation therefor, in the dis- 
trict where such land is situate. The trustees aver that the existence 
of such a lease never came to their knowledge until after the making 
out of the tax list. This is doubtless true, but they were bound to know 
the limits of their own district, and were bound at their peril not to 
impose a tax upon any one, in respect to land outside of their limits, 
unless it was in his actual possession, constituting a part of real pro- 
perty "partly within such district and partly in an adjoining district." 

It is an anomaly that land lying in one district should, under any 
circumstances, be withdrawn from its liability to support the public 
burdens of such district, and made to contribute to those of another in 
which the owner mny reside. The law is to be so construed as to restrict 
such cases within the narrowest possible limits. 

The appeal is therefore sustained. The trustees must correct their 
tax list, by excluding therefrom the valuation of lot No. 26, and by 
assessing so much of the tax as is imposed upon the appellant, hj reason 
of his ownership of such lot, on the taxable inhabitants of the district, 
in proportion to their respective valuations. 

Per E. P. Smith, Dep. Supt., May 20, 1856. 

Children of non-residents may be admitted to the district school upon such terms 
as may be agreed upon between their parents or guardians and the trustees. 

The contract for admission should be in writing, and the payment of tuition 
should be exacted in advance. 

Joseph E. Walton, an inhabitant of District No. 9, Colesville, Broome 
county, applied to one of the trustees of District No. 4, in the same 
town, and received permission from him to send his children to their 
school, for the term commencing May, 1855, and ending March, 1856, "on 
the same conditions as though he had been a resident of said District 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 101 

No. 4, to wit : He was to furnish liis quota of fuel, and enjoy the benefit 
of the public money in said district." The children attended during 
the whole term without objection from either of the other trustees, or 
from any inhabitant of said District No. 4, and the appellant furnished 
his quota of fuel. The trustee who gave the permission having removed 
from the district, and the vacancy being filled by an election, the board, 
as now constituted, "refused to allow him to participate in the benefits 
of the public money." The appellant asks the interposition of this 
department in his behalf, and that the trustees may be directed to carry 
such agreement into effect, "by allowing me to participate in the benefits 
of the public money applicable to the payment of teachers' wages." 

Schools are provided primarily for the children resident in the district. 
The statute declares that they are free to all residents over five and 
under twenty-one years of age, "as thereinafter provided," that is to say, 
free as far as the right to attend them is concerned, subject to the lia- 
bility to contribute by rate bill as provided in § 6, to the payment of 
any balance of teachers' wages, after the application "of the amount 
apportioned to such district under the provisions of this act, and other 
public moneys belonging to the district applicable to the payment of 
teachers'' wages" This is the only provision in the act defining or 
limiting the freedom guaranteed to persons residing in the district. The 
two provisions must be regarded as co-extensive, and embracing only the 
same class of persons. It follows that residents, and none other than 
residents, are the subjects of a rate bill. 

It is to be remarked that the sixth section discriminates between the 
amount apportioned to the district by the provisions of the act — that is, 
the money derived from the state treasury, to which in common par- 
lance the meaning of the words "public moneys" is restricted — and 
"other public moneys belonging to the district applicable to the pay- 
ment of teachers' wages." These words are broad enough to include, 
and are to be construed as including, not only the revenues of any 
permanent local funds, but any sums received for tuition from persons 
not liable to a rate bill. The latter are to be applied in reduction of 
the teachers' wages, before the amount can be ascertained for which a 
rate bill must be made upon the residents of the district. It follows, 
then, that the appellant is not subject to a rate bill, and, independent 
of an express contract, can have no interest in the question, whether 
the public money apportioned to a district to which he does not belong 
is large or small. 

The first section of the act of April 12, 1851, provides that "persons 
not resident of a district may be admitted into the schools kept therein, 
with the approbation in writing of the trustees thereof or a majority 
of them." This provision is only declaratory of the law, as previously 
understood and expounded by this department. It is doubtless true 
that a teacher would be at liberty to exclude a pupil not residing in the 
district, until the written evidence of the assent of a majority of the 
trustees should be presented. As a matter of reasonable prudence, 
such permission ought undoubtedly to be put into writing, and should 
declare precisely the terms upon which it is granted. 



102 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

In tliis case, however, no question arises from the absence of a written 
permission, because in the first place, the children were not excluded, 
and in the second, the terms of the agreement are admitted by both 
sides. It was the business of the trustees, if they disapproved the 
contract made by one of their number, to have excluded the children 
absolutely, or to have made a new contract as to the amount to be paid 
for their tuition. By their acquiescence and inaction they must be 
deemed to have known and ratified the arrangement made by their 
colleague, especially as they have received money, or its equivalent for 
fuel, in pursuance of that contract. 

The proper mode for them would have been to have assented to the 
continuance of the children in school, upon the appellant entering into 
a Avritten agreement to pay a definite sum in dollars and cents for their 
tuition ; or, what is more proper, paying it in advance, that it might 
become at once and beyond contingency a part of "the public moneys 
belonging to the district." They could, and in strictness should, have 
fixed that sum without regard to the attendance or non-attendance of 
the children. They would have been well warranted in making it 
somewhat larger than the amount which was expected to be required 
fi'om residents. Public policy demands that a parent should not be 
permitted to withdraw his children from contributing to the support of 
the school in his own district, without such strong motives as may 
reconcile him to an increased expense for their tuition. If he choose 
to send to what, as far as he is concerned, is a private school, he cannot 
complain if he is made to pay precisely as if he received no aid what- 
ever from the public funds. 

In this case the making out of the rate bill is to be regarded simply 
as a mode of computing the amount which the appellant has agreed to 
pay ; and he must pay it, not because the trustees have authority to 
make a rate bill against him, but because he has agreed to pay what- 
ever, upon that mode of computation, may be found to be due. 

Per E. P. Smith, Dep. Supt., May 23, 1856. 

The election of a trustee at an adjourned meeting valid. 

If a trustee renders his annual account to an adjourned annual meeting, he will 
not be removed because it is unsatisfactory. 

Mr. Isaac Tracy, one of the trustees of District No. 5, Allen, Alle- 
gany county, omitted to make his annual report to the annual meeting, 
October 1, 1855, but claims that one was submitted and made by the 
clerk at an adjourned meeting, October 2. 

One of the trustees elected at the first meeting refused to serve, and 
at the adjourned meeting another was elected to fill the vacancy. 

Mr. Tracy will not be removed because his account was not satisfactory. 
He is liable to a suit, hereafter, for any money that can be shown by 
that account, or otherwise, to have' come into his hands, and which he 
cannot prove to have been legally expended or paid to a colleague or 
successor authorized to receive it. Ifj on the other hand, he entirely 
failed to render any account, he is liable to a penalty of $25.00, in 
addition to a judgment for any moneys proved to be in his hands. 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 103 

Tlie election of a trustee on the 2cl day of October, must be held to 
have been valid and regular. Admitting that the meeting the previous 
evening adourned for the sole purpose of having the annual account of 
the trustees submitted, the adjourned meeting was nevertheless compe- 
tent to fill any vacancy which might then exist in district offices. Such 
a vacancy was created by the refusal of Mr. Lincoln to serve. 

Per E. P. Smith, Dep. Supt., May 31, 1856. 

When the time for annual meeting is not fixed, a notice by the trustees speci- 
fying a day for the annual meeting is sufficient, and the proceedings at 
such meeting are legal. 

It is lawful at any district meeting to pass a resolution, with the consent of the 
town superintendent (school commissioner), designating an additional site, 
and raising a tax to purchase it. 

The consent of the commissioner need not be in writing. 

At a district meeting held in District No. 8, Moreau, Saratoga county, 
held October 1, 1855, a tax of $125.00 was voted to purchase an additional 
site and to build a school-house thereon, and also of $12.00 for repairs of 
the old school-house, the assent of the town superintendent to the 
designation of the additional site having been obtained. At this meeting 
the appellant was elected trustee. 

On the 29th day of October the appellant presented to his colleagues 
a tax list for the sums above mentioned, and requested them to meet 
with him for the purpose of examining and correcting the list, if cor- 
rections were necessary, and to unite with him in signing the warrant. 
From their refusal to meet with him or to execute the warrant this 
appeal is brought. 

On the part of the respondents it is urged that the annual meeting 
of 1854, failed to adjourn to any particular time and place, and that 
the notice for a meeting did not specify the objects for which it was 
called. 

If the time of the annual meeting in 1855 was not fixed at the 
meeting of 1854 (on which the evidence is conflicting), the trustees 
had the right to " appoint a day for the holding of the annual meeting," 
and this they did by subscribing a notice designating the 1st of October, 
1855, as such day and causing the same to be posted. It is of no 
consequence that they may have supposed they were only specifying 
the day to which the meeting stood adjourned. The fact that they 
so supposed, and that it was the day on which the inhabitants had for 
years been accustomed to hold their annual meeting, only proves that 
the day appointed was the precise one on which the inhabitants were 
prepared to expect their annual assemblage, and upon which they were 
the least likely to absent themselves from a want of notice. 

If an appeal had been taken from the proceedings of October 1, in 
proper time, the department would have been disposed to give con- 
siderable weight to the allegation that a portion of the voters had been 
surprised, and might have ordered a new meeting, to reconsider the subject 
notwithstanding those proceedings were entirelj'^ legal. It would have 
done this in the hope that those proceedings might have been aflSrmed 



104 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

under circumstances depriving every tax payer of any ground for dis- 
satisfaction. 

When, however, those who objected to the proceedings instead of 
taking active measures to set them aside, wait till thirty days, and then 
rest upon the illegality of the meeting, they must be confined to the 
issue thus made. 

As to the other question, regarding the site, the persons in favor of 
such new site, were under no obligations to give notice of their design 
to present such proposition, nor were they bound to consult the trustees 
in respect to it. Any person at any meeting lawfully assembled, had 
the right, without previous consultation with anybody, to propose such 
resolutions, and the meeting "by a majority of the votes of those 
present," and with the consent of the town superintendent, could lawfully 
designate an additional site, and lay a tax to purchase the same, and to 
build a house upon it. 

The consent of the town superintendent is not required to be in 
writing, and there is no pretense in this case that he did not consent in 
fact. Indeed it appears from the papers that he had taken an active 
part in procuring a deed of the additional site, to be executed to the 
trustees of the district before the 1st of October. This of itself proves 
his consent, and is sufficient to support the vote, although it was very 
proper to put such consent in writing as was subsequently done. 

The respondents are required to meet with the appellant and sign 
the tax list and warrant. 

Per V. M.-Eice, June 1, 1856. 

The assessment roll of a town, as revised by the assessors and delivered to the 
supervisors, is complete so far as to bind the trustees in making out a tax 
list. 

The trustees of Joint District No. 1, Gates and Chili, Monroe county, 
in making a tax list on the 15th day of October, 1855, adopted the 
valuations of the town assessment rolls for 1854. The rolls for 1855 
had not then been revised by the supervisors, and as those of the two 
towns differed very materially in their valuations of real estate, the 
trustees considered it unjust to follow them until such revision. In this 
the trustees erred, and their tax list is consequently erroneous. It has 
been repeatedly decided by this department, and also by the supreme 
court, that when the assessment roll has been revised by the assessors 
and delivered to the supervisors, it becomes so far complete as to bind 
the trustees. 

If the trustees of a joint district regard the valuations of the two town 
assessment rolls as not substantially just, as compared Avith each other 
so far as such district is concerned, they have the right to apply to the 
supervisors of the towns, parts of which are embraced within their 
school district, to determine the relative proportion of taxes that ought 
to be assessed upon the real property of the parts of such district so 
lying in different towns. (Sec. 72, chap. 480, Laws of 1847.) 



DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 105 

They can resort to this remedy as well after as before the board of 
supervisors has revised and equalized the town assessment rolls. 

The appeal is sustained, and the trustees authorized to amend their 
tax list, in accordance with law^ 

Per E. P. Smith, June 4, 1856. 

Exemptions must be collected by tax and not by rate bill. 

John Oliver appeals from a rate bill made by the trustees of District 
No. 6, Halfmoon, Saratoga county. 

On the 15th day of April, 1855, the trustees were indebted to the 
teacher, for the term then ending, $56.00. The amount of public money 
applicable to such term, was $29.72, leaving a balance of $36.28 to be 
collected by rate bill. Instead of compelling the teacher to wait for the 
collection of the rate bill, they drew an order on the town superintendent 
for the whole amount of public money in his hands, $47.86. In other 
words, they advanced to the teacher $18.14 out of the public money 
applicable to the summer term, and replaced it by the rate bill, when 
collected. If there is anything objectionable in this measure, which it 
is not intended to intimate, Mr. Oliver is estopped from taking the objec- 
tion, inasmuch as he shows that he himself (being then a trustee,) signed 
the order. 

On the 15th of April, 1856, the trustees were indebted to their 
teacher $72.00, to pay which they apply, 1st, the public money of 
1855, restored by the collection of the rate bill, $18.14; 2d, $10.62 
(out of $49.22,) of the public money of the present year, and for the 
residue, $43.24, they have made out a rate bill and issued a warrant. 

The replication of the appellant shows that the trustees have actually 
drawn an order on thetownsuperintendent for $15.00, instead of $10.62. 
The difference corresponds precisely with the amount of exemptions in 
the last and present rate bills, which should be raised by tax. 

There is no authority to collect it by rate bill, nor should the trustees 
obtain an advance of it from the public money, through an order drawn 
professedly for teachers' wages. They are, therefore, directed to deduct 
the sum of $5.12 ratably from the amount charged to each person 
not exempted in the rate bill. 

Per V, M. Rice, June 13, 1856. 

Any district meeting may elect an officer to fill an existing vacancy, although 
thirty days may have elapsed sipce its occurrence. 

The appeal was served June 11, 1856, upon E. S. Scott, town super- 
intendent, and no answer has been made. It appears that Alexander 
Fenton, a trustee in Joint District No. 9, in Middletown and Shandaken, 
removed therefrom about the 1st of April, 1856. On the 28th day 
of May, 1856, a special meeting was held at which William Jones was 
chosen to till the vacancy. The town superintendent, with a full know- 
ledge of such election, appointed John Newton to fill the vacancy, 
caused by the removal of Fenton. 

[Digest.] 14 



106 DIGEST OF DECISIONS. 

The inhabitants, when lawfully assembled at any district meeting, 
may choose district officers to fill vacancies. (§ 62, chap. 480, Laws 
of 184Y.) 

By § 77, it is provided that in case a vacancy shall not be supplied 
by a district meeting within one month thereafter, the superintendent 
of the town may appoint any person residing in such district to supply 
such vacancy. This provision does not, however, in any way affect the 
right of the district to supply such vacancy by election, at any period 
prior to an appointment n^ade by the town superintendent. 

In this case Mr. William Jones having been elected at a special 
meeting of the inhabitants of the district, previous to the appointment 
of Mr. Newton, the action must be considered legal. 

The crder of the town superintendent of District No. 9, Middletown 
and Shandaken, is therefore void. 

Per V. M. Rice, July 31, 1856. 



INTRODUCTORY 



LAWS IN RELATION TO SCHOOLS. 



By chap. 36 of the Laws of 1856, the legislature directed a revised 
edition of the laws iu relation to schools to be prepared, and a copy to 
be furnished to each school district library of this state, in the same 
volume with a Digest of Decisions of the Superintendents of Common 
Schools, the preparation of which had been authorized by chap. 397 of 
the Laws of 1854. The law directs this volume to be entitled the 
"Code. of Public Instruction," and that it be prepared, printed and dis- 
tributed, under the direction of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

No particular method of arranging or numbering the statutes having 
been prescribed, the plan has been to collect together those sections 
which related to the same subject, without strict regard to the place 
they may occupy in the Session Laws, but with such a general adher- 
ence to the arrangement of the revision of the school laws, in 1847, as 
was consistent with that leading purpose. The sections are numbered 
in the order which they assume under this arrangement ; and, at the end 
of each section, inclosed within brackets, a reference is given to the 
original statute from which it was taken, indicating the original number 
of the section, and also to every subsequent statute by which it has 
been amended or modified. 

No liberty has been taken with the text of the statutes, but they have 
been printed precisely in the words of their enactment, either as originally 
passed or as amended by the legislature ; except that where subsequent 
statutes have rendered it necessary to substitute other words for those 
contained in the law — as school commissioner or supervisor, in the 
place of town superintendent — the words thus substituted have been 
inclosed in brackets, and the authority for the interpolation has been 



108 INTRODrCTORY TO THE LAWS. 

cited at the end of the section or in the comment which follows it. 
The means are thus furnished to the reader of distinguishing between 
the authentic language of the legislature and the opinion of the compiler 
as to the effect of its enactments. 

It was necessary to study the utmost brevity in the comments upon 
the various sections. An unavoidable result will be, that to the careless 
reader many questions may appear to have been overlooked, for which 
an answer will be found upon more deliberate examination. In order 
to reach the meaning of a statute, every word must be pondered, as if 
special attention were invited to it by the display of italic type, and by 
the warning that the word could not be omitted, or any other word 
whatever substituted in its place, without perverting the intention of the 
law makers. It would be presumptuous to ask the same minute con- 
sideration of the comments ; but the school officers, for whose instruction 
they were prepared, may be assured that a laborious effort has been 
made to anticipate every question they can have occasion to ask, and to 
furnish all the information that is practicable. 

There are occasional references, in the comments, to the volume of 
Decisions of the State Superintendents, published in 1837 by Superin- 
tendent Dix, under the authority of the legislature. It is cited as 
Gom. School Dec. The references to judicial decisions are for the 
the most part to those made by the courts of this state. Where the 
reports of other states or of England are cited, the fact is usually indi- 
cated by giving the abbreviation for the name of the state, with that of 
the reporter. 



STATUTES RELATING TO COMMON SCHOOLS. 



OF THE POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE SUPERINTENDENT 
OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 

No. 1. There shall be chosen by joint ballot of the senate 
and assembly, on the first Tuesday in April next, and every 
third year thereafter, and as often as a vacancy shall occur in 
said office, a State Superintendent of Public Instruction, who 
shall hold his office for three years, and shall be invested with 
all the powers, perform all the duties, and be subject to all 
the responsibilities now conferred or imposed by law upon 
the Secretary of State in his capacity of Superintendent 
of Common Schools. ( Sec. 1, chajy. 97 of 1854, passed March 
30, 1854.) 

No. 2. The superintendent, so appointed, shall enter imme- 
diately upon the discharge of his duties, and shall be assigned 
suitable and convenient rooms in the state hall, to which all 
books, papers and documents now in the office of the Secre- 
tary of State, and pertaining to the common school depart- 
ment, shall be transferred. He shall receive an annual salary 
of two thousand five hundred dollars, payable quarterly by 
the treasurer on the warrant of the comptroller, and shall 
have power to appoint a deputy and as many clerks, not 
exceeding three, as he may deem necessary for the transaction 
of the business of the department ; but the compensation of 
such deputy and clerks shall not exceed three thousand dollars 
in any one year, and shall be payable monthly by the treasurer 
on the warrant of the comptroller and the certificate of the 
superintendent. ( Sec. 2, chap. 97 of 1854. ) 



110 POWERS AND DUTIES 

No. 3. It shall be the duty of the State Superintendent, as 
soon as may be practicable after the commencement of his 
official term, to devise a seal, with suitable inscriptions and 
device, a description of M^hich, together w^ith an impression 
thereof, shall be filed in the office of the Secretary of State, 
which shall thereafter be the official seal of the said superin- 
tendent, and such seal may be renewed from time to time, as 
often as may be necessary ; copies of all papers deposited or 
filed in the office of said superintendent, and all acts, orders 
and decisions made by him, may be authenticated under such 
seal, and when so authenticated, shall be evidence equally 
and in like manner with the original. ( Sec. 3, cha/p. 97 of 
1854.) 

Chap. 129 of 1838 provides that no "record, whereof a transcript 
duly certified may by law be read in evidence, shall be removed by 
virtue of any subpoena duces tecum frova. the proper oflBce in which 
such record shall be kept, % * * * unless by 

order of some court of record, made in open court, and entered in the 
minutes thereof, which order shall specify that the production of such 
record instead of such transcript is necessary." 

The Revised Statutes, sec. 59, title 3, chap. 7, part 3, provide that 
" whenever a certified copy of any aflSdavit, record, document or other 
paper is declared by law to be evidence, such copy shall be certified, by 
the clerk or oflBcer in whose custody the same is required by law to be, 
to have been compared by him with the original, and to be a correct 
transcript therefrom and of the whole of such original ; and if such 
officer have any official seal by law, such certificate shall be attested by 
such seal." The 61st section of the same title provides that " in all 
cases, where the seal of any court or of any public officer shall be author- 
ized or required by law, the same may be affixed by making an impres- 
sion directly on the paper, which shall be as valid as if made on a wafer 
or on wax." 

No. 4. It shall be the duty of the State Superintendent to 
visit, as often as may be practicable, such and so many of the 
common schools, academies and other literary institutions of 
the state as he may deem expedient, to inquire into the course 
of instruction, management and discipline of such institutions, 
and to report the results of such visitation and inspection 
annually to the legislature, with such recommendations and 



OF STATE SUPERINTENDENT. Ill 

suggestions as he may deem suitable. ( Sec. 4. chap. 97 of 
1854.) 

The Revised Statutes, sec. 1, title 2, chap. 15, part 1, declared it the 
duty of the superintendent of common schools " to prepare and submit 
an annual report to the legislature, containing, 

1. A statement of the condition of the common schools of the state. 

2. Estimates and accounts of expenditures of the school moneys. 

3. Plans for the improvement and management of the common school 
fund, and for the better organization of the common schools ; and 

4. All such matters relating to his oflBce and to the common schools 
as he shall deem expedient to communicate. 

Chap. 350 of 1847, in relation to reports of state officers, requires 
them (including the superintendent of common schools) " to complete 
their several annual reports for the previous fiscal year, before the expi- 
ration of the current calendar year, and cause the same to be presented 
to the legislature immediately after the commencement of its next 
annual session." It also requires them to embrace in said annual 
reports a true account, so far as the same is practicable, of the funds 
and accounts of which each of said officers is in charge, to the termi- 
nation of the current calendar year." 

No. 5. The State Superintendent shall be, ex-officio^ a mem- 
ber of the board of regents of the university, and chairman 
of the executive committee of the board of regents of the 
State Normal School. ( Sec. 5, chap. 97 of 1854. ) 

No. 6. The superintendent of [Public Instruction] may 
appoint such and so many persons as he shall from time to 
time deem necessary, to visit and examine into the condition 
of the common schools in the county where such persons 
may reside, and report to the superintendent on all such mat- 
ters relating to the condition of such schools, and the means 
of improving them, as he shall prescribe ; but no allowance 
or compensation shall be made to the said visitors for such 
services. {Sec. 8, chap. 330 of 1839. The words '■^public 
instrnctioii''' substituted for " common schools, in conformity to No. 
1 of this compilatio?i. ) 

No. 7. The Superintendent of [Public Instruction], on such 
evidence as may be satisfactory to him, may grant certificates 
of qualification, under his hand and seal of office, which shall 



112 POWERS AND DUTIES 

be evidence that the holder of such certificate is well quali- 
fied in respect to moral character, learning and ability to teach 
any district school within this state, which certificate shall be 
valid until duly revoked by the superintendent. ( Sec. 10, 
chap. 133 of 1843. The words ^^ public instruction''^ substituted 
for " common schools,'''' in conformity to No. 1 of this compilation.) 

No. 8. Whenever it shall be satisfactorily proven to the 
State Superintendent that any county or town superintendent 
or other school officer has embezzled the public money, or any 
money coming into his hands for school purposes, or has been 
guilty of the willful violatipn of any law or neglect of any 
duty, or of disobeying any decision, order or regulation of 
the Department of [Public Instruction], the State Superin- 
tendent is hereby authorized to remove such officer from such 
office, by an order under the seal of office of the [Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction]. {Sec. 15, chay. 382 o/^1849, 
substituting ^^ public instmction^'' for '•'■common schools,'''' in confor- 
mity to No. 1, and " Superintendent of Public Instruction^^ for 
^^ secretary of state,'''' in conformity to No. 3 of this compilation.) 

When it becomes necessary to ask the removal of a school officer, 
under the foregoing section, the following practice must be pursued : 
An affidavit or affidavits must be prepared and duly verified before some 
officer authorized to administer oaths, charging him with one or more 
of the offenses of which he is supposed to have been guilty, and which 
are above enumerated, as with having " embezzled money coming to 
his hands for school purposes," or with the willful neglect of some 
specified duty, or with disobeying some decision or order of the Depart- 
ment of Public Instruction, setting out the date of such order and its 
requisition in words or in substance. The affidavit, after distinctly 
stating the charge, should proceed with a specification of the facts by 
which it is established, which must be set forth with such certainty as 
to time, place, &c., as to furnish the officer with precise information as 
to what he is expected to meet, and to enable him to look for repelling 
testimony. After being verified, a copy of the affidavits, including the 
ju7'at or certificate of the officer administering the oath, must be served 
upon the officer whose removal is sought, together with a notice of the 
application, which may be substantially in the following form : 

Sir — Take notice that the affidavits, with copies of which you are 
herewith served, will be presented to the Superintendent of Public 
Instruction at Albany, and application thereupon made for your 



OF STATE SUPERINTENDENT. • 113 

removal from the office of trustee of Joint District No. , of Shan- 
daken, in Delaware county, and Denning, in Ulster county ; and that 
you are required to transmit your answer to sucli application, duly veri- 
fied, to the Department of Public Instruction within ten days after the 
service hereof, or the charges contained in such affidavits will be deemed 
to be admitted by you. 

Your obt. servt., 

A. B. (Post-Office Address), 

Port Jervis, Delaware Co. 

A copy of this notice, together with an affidavit proving the service 
thereof and of the affidavits therein referred to, and the date and man- 
ner of such service, must be transmitted, with the original affidavits to 
the Department of Public Instruction. No fact, although otherwise 
known to the department, will be taken into consideration, nor will any 
paper be read or referred to, in disposing of the case, unless evidence is 
furnished that a copy of such paper has been served upon the party 
against whom the complaint is made. He cannot be prejudiced by 
any statement which he has not been called upon to answer. 

The form of the notice above given indicates the course of the 
respondent. He is to transmit his sworn answer, together with the 
affidavits of other persons, if he deems them necessary, to the depart- 
ment within ten days. If for any reason, as the absence of matei'ial 
witnesses, he is unable to complete his defense in that time, he should 
before its expiration transmit his own answer duly verified, with a state- 
ment, under oath, of the facts which render it necessary that the time 
to procure further evidence should be extended, and stating the earliest 
day at which he expects to be able to obtain such evidence. If a pro- 
bable defense appears from his answer, and the application for further 
time is reasonable, an order will be made granting it. 

Both parties should have their affidavits, &c., legibly written upon 
foolscap paper, if practicable, and upon the same sheet or continuous 
sheets, written on both sides, and fastened together in the manner of 
legal pleadings, and not upon separate scraps of paper. They should 
be'endorsed with a title, indicating the nature of the application, and the 
district, town and county where the matter arose, together with the 
post-office address of the person transmitting them. Though these may 
appear trifling minutiae, the neglect of them produces great embarrass- 
ment and delay in a public office which is burdened with a very exten- 
sive correspondence. 

[Code.] 15 



114 POWERS AND DUTIES 

No. 9. The Superintendent of Public Instruction shall be 
chargedwithprovidingthemeansof education for all the Indian 
children in the state. He shall cause to be ascertained the 
condition of the various bands in the state, in respect to 
education ; he shall establish schools in such places and 
of such character and description as he shall deem necessary ; 
he shall employ superintendents for such schools, and shall, 
with the concurrence of the comptroller and secretary of 
state, cause to be erected, where necessary, convenient build- 
ings for their accommodation. {Sec. 1, chay. 71 ofVSbQ.) 

No. 10. In the discharge of the duties imposed by this act, 
the said superintendent shall endeavor to secure the coopera- 
tion of all the several bands of Indians, and for this purpose 
shall visit, by himself or his authorized agent, all the reserva- 
tions where they reside, lay the matter before them in public 
assembly, inviting them to assist either by appropriating their 
public moneys to this object or by setting apart lands and 
erecting suitable buildings, or by furnishing labor or materials 
for such buildings, or in any other way which he or they may 
suggest as most effectual for the promotion of this object. 
{Sec. 2, chap. 71 of 1856.) 

No. 11. In any contract which may be entered into with 
the said Indians, for the use or occupancy of any land for 
school grounds, sites or buildings, care shall be taken to pro- 
tect the title of the Indians to their lands, and to reserve to 
the state the right to remove or otherwise dispose of all im- 
provements made at the expense of the state. ( Sec. 3, chajt' 
71 0/1856.) 

No. 12. The Indian children in the state, between the ages 
of four and twenty-one years, shall be entitled to draw public 
money the same as white children. The superintendent shall 
cause an annual enumeration of said Indian children to be 
made, and shall see that the public money to which they are 
ratably entitled is devoted exclusively to their education. 
{Sec. 4, chap. 71 of 1856.) * 

No. 13. To carry into effect the provisions of this act, the 
sum of five thousand dollars is hereby appropriated out of 
the surplus income of the United States deposit fund, to be 
paid by the treasurer, on the warrant of the comptroller. 



OF STATE SUPERINTENDENT. 115 

from time to time, to the order of the Superintendent of Public 
Instruction. {Sec. 5, chaj). 71 of 1856.) 

No. 14. The superintendent shall take and file in his office 
vouchers and receipts for all the expenditures made under 
this act, subject to the inspection of the joint committee to 
examine the accounts of the auditor and treasurer, and shall 
annually report to the legislature all his doings by virtue of 
the authority vested in him ; and for this purpose said super- 
intendent may require full and detailed reports, in such form 
as he may prescribe, from those having the immediate super- 
vision of any Indian schools in this state. ( § 6, chajj. 71 of 1856. ) 

No. 15. The institution fi'ir the deaf and dumb in the city 
of New- York, and every other similar institution incorporated 
or to be incorporated in this state, shall be subject to the 
visitation of the Superintendent of [Public Instruction]. {Rev. 
Stat., sec. 1, tit. 3, chap. 15, ijart 1st. The ivords " public instruc- 
tion^^ substituted for " common schools,''^ in coiformity to No. 1 of 
this compilation.) 

No. 16. It shall be the duty of the superintendent, as such 
visitor : 

1. To inquire from time to time into the expenditures of 
each institution and the systems of instruction pursued therein 
respectively ; 

2. To visit and inspect the schools belonging thereto, and 
the lodgings and accommodations of the pupils ; 

3. To ascertain, by a comparison with other similar institu- 
tions, whether any improvements in instruction and discipline 
can be made ; and for that purpose to appoint from time to 
time suitable persons to visit the schools ; 

4. To suggest to the directors of such institution and to the 
legislature such improvements as he shall judge expedient ; 

5. To make an annual report to the legislature on all the 
matters before enumerated, and particularly as to the condi- 
tion of the schools, the improvement of the pupils and their 
treatment in respect to board and lodging. {Rev. Stat., sec. 2, 
tit. 3, chap. 15, part 1st.) 

No. 17. It shall be the duty of the overseers of the poor in 
each town to furnish the Superintendent of [Public Instruc- 
tion] with a list of the deaf and dumb persons in their 
respective towns, so far as they can ascertain them, with such 



116 POWERS AND DUTIES 

particulars in relation to the condition of each as shall be 
prescribed by the said superintendent. ( Sec. 1, chap. 223 of 
1832. The words '■'■ imhllc instruction''^ substituted for '■^common 
schools,''^ in conformity to No. 1 of this compilation.) 

No. 18. From the list thus obtained, the superintendent 
may select as state pupils such as are properly embraced 
within the provisions of the existing laws, and make such 
regulations and give such directions to parents and guardians, 
in relation to the admission of pupils at stated periods, as will 
remove the inconvenience of having pupils of the same class 
entering the school at different periods. {Sec. 2, chap. 223 
of 1832. ) 

No. 19. Every indigent deaf and dumb person, resident of 
this state, between twelve and twenty-live years of age, 
whose parent or parents, or, if an orphan, whose nearest friend 
shall have been resident in this state for three years, and who 
may make application for that purpose, shall, until provision 
be made by law for his or her instruction in some other insti- 
tution or school, be received into the New-York institution 
for the instruction of the deaf and dumb, provided his or her 
application for the purpose be first approved of by the Super- 
intendent of Public Instruction. {Sec. 1, chap. 272 of 1854.) 

Prior to the passage of this act tlie number of state pupils had been 
limited, and they were apportioned equally among the old senate 
districts, as established under the constitution of 1822. This restriction 
is now abrogated ; but it is still necessary that the indigence of the 
applicant be established by the certificate of the overseers of the poor 
of the town wherein such deaf and dumb person shall reside, " to the 
inability of the parent, parents or guardian to pay for his or her board 
and tuition." In case the applicant is over twenty-one years of age, the 
overseers should certify to the inability of the candidate himself; and in 
case the parent, parents or guardian ( or the applicant himself, if of full 
age) have the ability to pay any portion of the board and tuition, or 
for the clothing of a deaf and dumb person, the overseers of the poor are 
required to certify and state the amount. They are also required to state 
in their certificate that the parent or parents, or, if an orphan, the nearest 
friend of the deaf mute, have been resident in this state for three years. 
It is provided by sec, 3, chap. 244 of Laws of 1838, that "the supervisors 
of any county in this state, from which state pupils may be selected, 



OF STATE SUPERINTENDENT. 117 

whose parents or guardians are unable to furnish them with suitable 
clothing, are hereby authorized and required, while such pupils are 
under instruction, to raise a sum of money for this purpose, not exceed- 
ing twenty dollars in any one year for each pupil, from said county." 

No. 20. Each indigent pupil, so received into the institu- 
tion aforesaid, shall be provided with board, lodging and 
tuition; and the directors of the institution shall receive for 
each pupil so provided for the sum of one hundred and fifty 
dollars per annum, in quarterly payments, to be paid by the 
treasurer of the state, on the warrant of the comptroller, to 
the treasurer of the said institution on his presenting a bill of 
the actual time and number of pupils attending the institu- 
tion, and which bill shall be signed and verified by the oath 
of president and secretary of tli^' institution. The regular 
term of instruction for such pupils shall be five years. The 
indigent pupils provided for in this act shall be designated 
state pupils, and all the existing provisions of law applicable 
to state pupils now in said institution shall apply to pupils 
herein provided for. [Sec. 2, chap. 272 o/'1854. ) 

No. 21. It shall be lawful for the Superintendent of Public 
Instruction to continue at the said institution for a period not 
exceeding three years, for the purpose of pursuing a course 
of studies in the higher branches of learaing, such pupils, not 
exceeding twelve in number, as may have completed their full 
term of instruction, and who may be recommended by the 
du-ectors of said institution. ( Sec. 3, chap. 272 o/*1854.) 

No. 22. The Superintendent of [Public Instruction ] is here- 
by authorized to visit and inspect the New- York institution 
for the blind, in all its departments, and to report to the 
legislature on such matters and things relating to the interests 
of said institution as he may deem necessary. ( Sec. 6, chay. 
200 o/'1839. The toords ^^ public instruction^^ suhstituted for " com- 
mon schools,'''' in accordance ivith No. 1 of this co7npilation.) 

No. 23. ***** AikJ it is hereby declared that every 
indigent blind person, resident of this state, between twelve 
and twenty-five years of age, whose parent or parents, or, if 
an orphan, whose nearest friend shall have been a resident in 
this state, and who may make application for that purpose, 
shall, until provision be made by law for his or her instruction 



118 POWERS AND DUTIES 

in some other institution or school, be received into said insti- 
tution for the blind and be instructed in literary or school 
education, and in some trade or employment now or hereafter 
to be taught and carried on in said institution, provided his 
or her application be first approved of by the Superintendent 
of Public Instruction. {Part of sec. 1, chap. 539 [^Supply Bill], 
of 1855, Session Laws, p. 1018,) 

Chap. 200 of 1839, authorized the managers of the New-York insti- 
tution for the bhnd, to receive from eact of the old senate districts, as 
estabhshed under the constitution of 1822. eight indigent bhnd persons 
in addition to those theretofore provided for by the state, viz., four from 
each senate district, under chap. 316 of 1834, and four, in addition from 
each district, under chap. 293 of 1836. The number was thus raised 
to sixteen from each of the eight former senate districts, or one hundred 
and twenty-eight in all. They were, in virtue of those acts, to be 
received " between eight and twenty-five years of age," " in like manner 
and at the like expense to the state as is provided by law for the indi- 
gent deaf and dumb." The act of 1839 provides that " all of said pupils 
shall be instructed for a period not exceeding five years in such studies 
or employments as now are or may hereafter be taught or carried on in 
said institution ; but when it may be advantageous to prolong the time 
of instruction of any one or more of the pupils now in said institution, 
or of those which may hereafter be received therein, the managers may, 
in their discretion, retain them for a term not exceeding two years 
beyond that now provided for by law ; fii'st obtaining for that purpose 
the approbation of the Superintendent" of [Public Instruction]. 

The supervisors of any county in the state from which state pupils 
may be sent, whose parents or guardians are unable to furnish them 
with suitable clothing, are required by sec. 5, chap. 200 of 1839, while 
such pupils are under instruction, to raise a sum of money for this pur- 
pose, not exceeding $20 in any one year for each pupil from said 
county. 

These provisions have not been expressly repealed, and it may be a 
question how far the act of 1855 is to be regarded as modifying them. 
May not indigent blind children, to the number of sixteen from each of 
the former senate districts, still be admitted as state pupils, although 
between the ages of eight and twelve years ? It will be observed that 
the act of 1855 does not limit the term of instruction, and does not 
pledge the state to any particular rate of compensation for the 



OF STATE SUPERINTENDENT. 119 

board and instruction of the pupils. Up to the number of one hundred 
and twenty-eight, the term of instruction and the allowance to the insti- 
tution, are fixed by previous laws. 

No. 24. The superintendent shall prepare suitable forms and 
regulations for making all reports, and conducting all neces- 
sary proceedings under this title, and shall cause the same, 
with such instructions as he shall deem necessary and proper 
for the better organization and government of common schools, 
to be transmitted to the officers required to execute the pro- 
visions of this title throughout the state. {Sec. 9, title 2, chap. 
15, part 1 of the Revised Statutes.) 

The title of the Revised Statutes above referred to, is that " of com- 
mon schools" embodying all the provisions in respect to their organiza- 
tion and management, and which, as modified by subsequent legislation, 
are collated in this volume. The succeeding section directed the 
superintendent to " cause so many copies of the first six articles of this 
title, with the forms, regulations and instructions prepared by him 
thereto annexed, to be from time to time printed and distributed among 
the several school districts of the state, as he shall deem the public good 
to require ;" and sec. 1 1 provided that " all moneys reasonably expended 
by him in the execution of his duties, shall, upon due proof, be allowed 
to him by the comptroller, and be paid out of the treasury." These 
provisions, however, are rendered substantially nugatory by sec. 8, art. Y, 
of the constitution of 1846. 

" No moneys shall ever be paid out of the treasury of this state or 
any of its funds, or any of the funds under its management, except in 
pursuance of an appropriation by law, nor unless such payment be made 
within two years next after the passage of such an appropriation act ; 
and every such law making a new appropriation, or continuing or 
reviving an appropriation, shall distinctly specify the sum appropriated 
and the object to which it is to be applied ; and it shall not be sufficient 
for such law to refer to any other law to fix such sum." 



120 APPORTIONMENT OF 

OF THE APPORTIONMENT OF SCHOOL MONEYS. 

No. 25. There shall hereafter be raised by tax, in the pre- 
sent and each succeeding year, upon the real and personal 
estate of each county within the state, three-fourths of a mill 
upon each and every dollar of the valuation of such estate, 
for the support of common schools in this state, to be appor- 
tioned and distributed by the Superintendent of Public In- 
struction, in the same manner as the proceeds of the state tax 
of eight hundred thousand dollars, in lieu of w^hich this tax 
is substituted, and now required to be apportioned and dis- 
tributed except as hereinafter provided. The board of 
supervisors of each county shall assess such amount upon 
the real and personal estate of such county, in the manner 
provided by law for the assessment and collection of 
taxes ; and shall annually, as soon as the aggregate valua- 
tion of the real and personal estate of their county shall 
be ascertained, give immediate notice thereof to the Super- 
intendent of Public Instruction. No clerk of any board 
of supervisors, or other person who may make out the tax 
list or assessment rolls of any town, shall omit to include and 
apportion among the moneys to be raised thereby, the amount 
hereby required to be raised for the support of schools, by 
reason of the omission of the board of supervisors to pass a 
resolution for that purpose. {Sec. 1, cAop. 180 of 1856.) 

In addition to the proceeds of the state tax, there are annually 
apportioned and distributed for the support of common schools : 1st. 
The revenue of the common school fund, in accordance with sec. 2, title 
4, chap. 9, part 1 of the Revised Statutes. 

"There shall be annually distributed, as the revenue of the common 
school fund, and according to the apportionment of the superintendent 
of common schools then in force, the sum of one hundred thousand 
dollars for the support and encouragement of common schools, to be 
denominated ' school moneys ;' and as often as such revenue shall be 
increased by the sum of ten thousand dollars, such increase shall be 
added to the sum to be distributed." 

Under this provision, $145,000 of the revenue is annually apportioned. 
The revenue for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1855, was 
$143,127.73, and the capital at that date $2,457,520.86. The consti- 
tution provides that " the sum of twenty -five thousand dollars of the 
revenues of the United States deposit fund shall each year be appro- 



SCHOOL MONEYS. 121 

priated to and made part of the capital of the said common school fund." 
The principal increase of the fund is derived from this source, nearly all 
the lands belonging to it having been sold. 

2. One hundred and ten thousand dollars for teachers' wages, and 
$55,000 for district libraries, are also annually distributed from the 
income of the United States deposit fund. The appropriation of these 
sums was originally made by chap. 237 of 1838. That act, after making 
sundry appropriations of the income of the United States deposit fund 
for literary purposes, provided as follows : 

" § 10. The residue of the income aforesaid, not otherwise appropriated, 
shall be annually added to the capital of the common school fund; and 
the comptroller is hereby authorized and required to invest such surplus 
moneys in like manner as he is now authorized to invest the moneys of 
the common school fund." 

In 1847, when the new constitution took effect, and also in 1849, 
the legislature in the acts appropriating the revenues of the literature 
and United States deposit funds, reenacted the provision assigning the 
unappropriated residue of the latter fund to the common school fund. 
This was apparently done to comply with the provision of the constitu- 
tion, limiting the operation of a law appropriating money to two years 
from the date of its passage. It is believed, however, that a law merely 
designating the fand to which money is to be credited, when it reaches 
the treasury, does not come within that clause of the constitution, and 
that the above cited provision of the act of 1838 is still in force, although 
it has not been reenacted since 1849. 

Chap. 382 of 1849, contains the following provision applicable to the 
surplus income of the deposit fund as to all other moneys received on 
account of the school fund. 

"§ 13. Whenever any money is paid into the treasury of the state 
for or on account of the common school fund, it shall be the duty of 
the comptroller to credit the common school fund with interest on the 
sum so paid in, at the rate of six per cent per annum, for the time the 
same shall remain in the treasury." 

No. 26. All the moneys received or appropriated by the 
provisions of this act shall be applied to the payment of 
teachers' wages exclusively. {Sec. 11, chajj. 151 of 1851.) 

This provision, it is declared by sec. 1, chap. 425 of 1851, "shall not 
be so construed as to prevent or prohibit the distribution and application 
of library money in the manner heretofore prescribed by law." 

FC0DE.l 16 



122 APPORTIONMENT OF 

No. 27. Every commissioner chosen or elected in pursue 
ance of tliis act, shall receive an annual salary of at least five 
hundred dollars, to be paid out of the income of the United 
States deposit fund, appropriated to this purpose or to the 
support of common schools, and it shall be the duty of the 
Superintendent of Public Instruction to apportion to each 
county, in his annual apportionment of the income of said 
fund thus appropriated, five hundred dollars for the salary of 
each commissioner of common schools in said county, created 
under authority of this act. ( Sec. 12, chajj. 179 of 1856. ) 

The commissioners referred to in the preceding section are the school 
commissioners appointed for each assembly district, or in certain 
counties for a section of an assembly district, under the act to provide 
for a more thorough supervision and inspection of common schools, 
passed April 12, 1856. 

No. 28. The Superintendent of Public Instruction shall 
also apportion to each of the cities in this state, having, under 
special acts, a superintendent of common schools, or whose 
boards of education choose a clerk doing the duty of super- 
vision under their direction, out of the income of the United 
States deposit fund appropriated for this purpose, or for the 
support of common schools, the sum of five hundred dollars 
for each member of assembly to which such city shall be 
entitled according to the unit of representation adopted by 
the legislature, to be paid into the city treasury, and expended 
as required by law for the support of schools. ( Sec. 15, chap. 
179 0/1856.) 

No. 29. It shall be the duty of the State Superintendent 
of Public Instruction, on or before the first day of January of 
each and every year, after deducting any portion hereinbefore 
required to be apportioned for and on account of supervision, 
to apportion and divide one-third of the remainder of the 
income of the United States deposit fund appropriated by law 
for the support of schools, and one-third of all other moneys 
thus appropriated, among the several school districts and 
separate neighborhoods in this state, from which reports shall 
have been received, in accordance with law, in the following 
manner, viz : to each separate neighborhood belonging to a 
school district in some adjoining state, there shall be appor- 
tioned and paid a sum of money equal to thirty-three cents 
for each child in such neighborhood (between the ages of 



SCHOOL MONEYS. 123 

four and twenty-one); but the sum so to be apportioned and 
paid to any such neighborhood, shall in no case exceed the 
sum of twenty-four dollars ; and the residue of such one-third 
shall be apportioned and divided equally among the school 
districts ; and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction 
shall, by proper regulations and instructions to be prescribed 
by him, provide for the payment of such moneys to the trus- 
tees of such separate "neighborhoods and school districts. 
{Sec. 30, chap. 179 of 1856.) 

Under tlie former system, the number of children in separate neigh- 
borhoods, and the number of school districts in the state to which an 
apportionment is to be made by the State Superintendent on the first 
day of January, 185Y, would have to be ascertained from abstracts made 
by the school commissioners of the reports of trustees of school districts 
rendered between the 1st and 15th day of January, 1856, and contain- 
ing the statistics of schools and teachers during the year 1855. Such a 
report must have been made and transmitted to the late town superin- 
tendent, in order to fulfill the condition that the district be one of those 
" from which reports shall have been received in accordance with law." 
It is to be observed that no discretion is vested in the State Superin- 
tendent to admit a district to a share in the equal apportionment of 
one-third of the public moneys, in case of a failure to make the legal 
report, whatever mitigating circumstances may exist to excuse the 
delinquency. The statute requires that the whole of the sum equally 
apportioned be divided among the districts from which reports have 
been received. This being done, the money is exhausted, and the quota 
of a non-reporting district cannot be obtained without a contribution 
from every other district in the state ; which, even if it were practically 
feasible to collect, the superintendent has no authority to demand. 
This consideration enforces upon the trustees of districts the duty 
of making their annual report in all cases, notwithstanding they may be 
obliged to admit in their report that they have maintained school for a 
less period than six months, that they have employed unqualified 
teachers, or have in other respects failed to comply with the requisitions 
of law. 

The very prevalent error which leads to numerous fruitless applica- 
tions to the department for the restoration of a forfeited " district quota" 
(as, for the sake of brevity, the share of a district in the one-third of the 
public moneys equally distributed, will be denominated), arises from 



124 APPORTIONMENT OF 

overlooking the fact that the permission which the State Superintendent 
is authorized, by a subsequent section, to grant, is a permission to be 
included in the apportionment made by the school commissioners of the 
remaining two-thirds of the school moneys which are distributed to the 
counties and cities in propoi-tion to their population. Such permission 
relates exclusively to what may, for the sake of convenient brevity, be 
denominated the "pupil quota" — the portion of the public money 
distributed to the county on the basis of its entire population, Avhich a 
district is entitled to receive on its reapportionment by the school com- 
missioners in proportion to the number of residents between the ages of 
four and twenty-one years. 

It having been determined whether the district is 9r is not entitled 
to a " district quota," by seeing whether a report has been received 
therefrom in accordance with law and whether it has complied with the 
requisition of the next succeeding section, the amount of -such quota is 
to be determined according to No. 31, to the remarks under which the 
reader is referred. 

No. 30. Every district in this state in which a school shall 
have been taught by a qualified teacher for the time of six 
months, or by successive teachers, whose periods of actual 
instruction amount in the aggregate to six months, and no 
other, shall be enumerated for the purpose of the distribution 
of so much of the school money as shall be divided equally 
among the districts. {Sec. 2, chap. 180 of 1856.) 

The statute is here imperative that no other district shall be enume- 
rated, among those to which a " district quota" is apportioned, than 
those in which a school shall have been taught by a qualified teacher or 
teachers for the period of six months. The State Superintendent has 
no authority to overlook or excuse a delinquency in this particular, no 
matter what extenuating circumstances may be shown in palliation. It 
is essential that the teacher should possess a proper certificate of quali- 
fication during the whole period of his instruction, and it is therefore 
incumbent upon the trustees to require an actual production of the cer- 
tificate, before entering into any contract with a candidate for the post 
of teacher in their school, that they may ascertain by its examination 
whether it is granted by the proper ofiicer, is in due form, and has not 
expired by lapse of time. 

The Revised Statutes, sec. 4, title 1, chap. 19, part 1, provide that 
" Whenever the term month is or shall be used in any statute, act, deed, 



SCHOOL MONEYS. 125 

verbal or written contract, or any public or private instrument whatever, 
it shall be construed to mean a calendar and not a lunar month, unless 
otherwise expressed." 

In accordance with this rule it is conceived that the period between 
the beginning and the ending of the term of instruction must actually 
include the full period of six calendar months, or, if there has been an 
intermediate vacation, that the two periods shall in the aggregate amount 
to six calendar months. This does not imply, however, that the teacher 
should actually devote one hundred and eighty-two days to instruction. 
The month of February, for example, may begin and terminate on Sun- 
day, leaving but twenty-five secular days ; one of these, the 22d, the 
birthday of Washington, is very generally observed as a public holiday ; 
and, when so observed, a teacher is discharged from any obligation to 
teach school. There are also four Saturdays, on each of which he is 
entitled to a half holiday, or to the whole of the alternate ones, accord- 
ing to the custom of the district. The actual month's work would, in 
this case, be reduced to twenty-three days. The month of July, of 
thirty-one days, may include five Sundays and five Saturdays, besides 
the national holiday, the 4th. In this case the actual period of instruc- 
tion would be but twentj^-two days and a half. In both cases, however, 
the teacher would, unless a special contract to the contrary was made, 
be entitled to a full month's wages. The ordinary month's work for a 
teacher, in the absence of any special agreement to the contrary, is 
twenty-four days ; but to comply with the above provision, in respect to 
the allowance of a " district quota," it is believed that the six months' 
work must extend through six calendar months. 

No. 31. Every district school in which two or more quali- 
fied teachers are actually employed at the same time, for the 
period of six months or over, shall be enumerated as so many 
districts as there have been teachers thus employed during the 
year, whether any one or more of them had been continuously 
employed for the whole period of six months or not, providing 
the number of teachers actually employed shall have been at 
no time less than the number at which the district is enume- 
rated. Pupils employed as monitors, or otherwise, shall not 
be deemed teachers for the purpose of such enumeration. 
{Sec. 3, chap. 180 of 1856.) 

In order to entitle a district to the benefit of this provision, it will be 
necessary to show a strict compliance with the prescribed conditions. 



126 APPOETIONMENT OF 

"Whether any further evidence than the annual report of the trustees 
will be required, it is now premature to determine. The statement of 
the report must be based upon these facts, or they must be made to 
appear by an affidavit of the trustees, transmitted to the department 
before the time of making the apportionment, viz : 

1. That two or more teachers, each of whom possessed a legal certi- 
ficate of qualification during the whole period which the trustees esti- 
mate as a part of the six months, have been actually employed in 
instructing the district school, at the same time, for the period of six 
months or over. 

The instruction may be given in diff'erent rooms or in different build- 
ings ; for all the pupils within the district, under the tuition of teachers 
employed by the trustees in their official capacity, however dispersed, 
constitute but one school. This principle was settled, in respect to the 
mode of compensating teachers and the equality of rate bills, as long 
ago as 1826. [See decision of Supt. Flagg, p. 4, Common Schoool Deci- 
sion ; do., p. 56.) 

It is not necessary that all or either of the teachers should have been 
continuously employed for the whole period of six months. Thus, two 
qualified teachers may be employed at the same time during three 
months in the spring ; a vacation may intervene, and two other qualified 
teachers may be employed for three months in the summer or autumn. 
The provision, that " the number of teachers actually employed shall 
have been at no time less than the number at which the district is 
enumerated," must be construed as meaning at no time during the six* 
months in which the stated number of teachers is alleged to have beeu 
employed. A construction which would apply the words no time to 
the whole year, would debar a district from a double quota, which, 
having employed but one teacher in the first four months of 1856, should 
have engaged two immediately after the passage of the act, and kept 
them continuously employed for the remaining eight months of the 
year. It was undoubtedly the intention of the legislature that no 
teacher should be counted twice, because he may have been employed 
twelve months, and that no device of average or of equivalents should 
be resorted to for the purpose of computing the number of teachers ; for 
example, that three months' instruction by two teachers, and six months' 
additional instruction by one of them, should not be deemed as amount- 
ing to six months' employment of two teachers. Any interpretation 
which would give room for such modes of enumeration would afford an 
unjust advantage to the schools of the larger cities, in which numerous 



SCHOOL MONEYS. 121 

teachers are employed, and wliich are kept open during the whole year, 
with brief intervals of vacation. 

2. It must affirmatively appear that no one of the teachers referred to 
in the statement was a pupil, employed as a monitor or otherAvise, 
during any portion of the period in which he is enumerated as a 
teacher. 

The policy of the legislature, in the enactment of this section, was 
unquestionably to encourage the formation of large schools, classi- 
fied in different departments, or separated where necessary in different 
buildings, in preference to the division of districts and the multiplication 
of feeble schools. 

No. 32. It shall be the duty of the State Superintendent 
of Public Instruction, on or before the first day of January 
of each and every year, to apportion and divide the remaining 
two-thirds of the remainder specified in the preceding sec- 
tion (No. 27) among the several counties, according to popu- 
lation, as the same shall appear from the last preceding state 
or United States census ; but in counties in which are situated 
cities having a special school act, he shall apportion to each 
city the part to which it shall be entitled, and to the remain- 
der of the county the part to which it shall be entitled ; and 
he shall certify such apportionment, and every other appor- 
tionment, to the county clerk of the county to which they 
shall be made, and to the school commissioner or school com- 
missioners of such county : 

(1.) And the school commissioner, or school commissioners 
jointly in counties having more than one commissioner, shall 
forthwith proceed to set apart, to each separate neighborhood 
and school district within his or their jurisdiction, the amount 
apportioned to each by the State Superintendent of Public 
Instruction ; 

(2.) The commissioner or commissioners shall then proceed 
to divide and apportion the balance of the public school 
moneys (apportioned according to population for the support 
of schools within his or their jurisdiction) to the separate 
neighborhoods, school districts and parts of school districts, 
joint with parts in any city or a town in an adjoining county, 
in proportion to the number of children in each (between the 
ages of four and twenty-one), as the same shall appear from 
the report of the trustees of the last preceding school year ; 
and he or they shall specify, in such apportionment, the amount 



128 APPORTIONMENT OF 

apportioned to each for library purposes and the amount for 
teachers' wages ; 

(3.) But no moneys shall be apportioned or set apart by 
him or them to any separate neighborhood or school district 
or part of a district (joint with a part in any city, or with a 
part in a town in an adjoining county), unless it shall appear, 
from a report of the trustees thereof for the last preceding 
school year, that a public school was supported by the inha- 
bitants thereof for at least six months during the year ending 
with the date of such report, by a duly qualified teacher, 
except by special permission of the State Superintendent of 
Public Instruction ; 

(4.) The commissioner or commissioners aforesaid shall then 
set apart, to each town within his or their jurisdiction, the 
money so set apart and apportioned by them to each separate 
neighborhood therein, to each school district the school-house 
of which is therein, and to each part of a joint district therein 
the school-house of which is located in a city or in a town in 
an adjoining county; 

(5.) A certificate shall then be made by the commissioner 
or commissioners, showing the amount apportioned to each 
separate neighborhood, school district, and part of a district, 
joint as hereinbefore specified, within his or their jurisdiction, 
and it shall also show the towns in which they are respec- 
tively situated ; 

(6.) One copy of said certificate, signed by the commis- 
sioner or commissioners, shall be sent to the county treasurer, 
and one copy to the State Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion, and to the supervisor of each town ; the commissioner 
or commissioners shall certify the amount of school moneys, 
so apportioned, which he shall be entitled to receive from the 
county treasurer, and the portions thereof to be paid by him 
for library purposes and for teachers' wages to each district, 
separate neighborhood and part of a district (joint with a 
part in a city, or with any town in an adjoining county) ; 

( 7.) The supervisor shall forthwith make a copy of such cer- 
tificate for his own use, and deposit the original in the office 
of the town clerk of his town, and the share of the several 
towns so apportioned shall be paid over to the supervisors on 
and after the first Tuesday of February of each year ; 

(8.) Sections four and five of the act entitled "An act to 
establish free schools throughout the state," passed April 12, 
1851, are hereby repealed. {Sec, 31, chap. 179 of 1856.) 



SCHOOL MONEYS. 129 

For the purpose of facilitating the examination of this long section it 
has been broken into clauses, separated so as to be typographically dis- 
tinct and numbered, but otherwise conforming to the text and arrange- 
ment of the statute book. 

The first clause relates to the duty of the State Superintendent in 
making the apportionment. It differs from his duty under the law, as 
it stood prior to 1856, in this, that the apportionment, instead of being 
made to towns and cities, is hereafter to be made to counties, and to 
such cities as are governed by special school laws. The practical difference 
resulting from this is, that under the sub-apportionment made by the school 
commissioner, each town, or rather the districts in each town, will receive, 
over and above their respective " district quotas," a sum of money pro- 
portioned, not to the aggregate population of the town as compared 
with that of the whole state, but to the number of persons between four 
and twenty-one years of age in each, as compared with the entire num- 
ber of such persons in the county. 

The apportionment by the superintendent is made in the following 
manner : 

First. The amount to which each city and county is entitled for salaries 
of school commissioners, or, in the language of No. 2Y, "for and on 
account of supervision," is ascertained, and the aggregate of those sums 
is deducted from the 1165,000 appropriated to schools out of the reve- 
nue of the United States deposit fund, unless a distinct appropriation 
for this purpose be made by the legislature. 

Second. The sum of $55,000, part of the appropriation of $165,000 
from the revenue of the United States deposit fund, is apportioned to the 
several counties and cities, in proportion to their population, for district 
libraries. 

Third. The residue of the appropriation from the revenue of the United 
States deposit fund is added to the appropriation from the income of 
the school fund (now $145,000) and the proceeds of the three-quarter 
mill state tax, and of their gross sum one-third is apportioned to the 
several counties and cities of the state, as follows : 

1. The whole number of children between four and twenty-one years 
of age belonging to all the separate neighborhoods of this state, attached 
to districts in adjoining states, is ascertained, and the product of that 
number, by thirty-three cents, is deducted from the one-third of the 
residue of public school money ; the residue of such third is then appor- 
tioned as follows, viz : 

[Code.] 17 



130 APPORTIONMENT OF 

2. The whole number of districts in the state, computed as directed 
in No. 31, is first ascertained, and the quotient, obtained by dividing 
the one-third above mentioned by the whole number oi districts, is 
taken as the " district quota. " It is then ascertained to what number 
of " district quotas" each district having its school-house in a county 
or city is entitled, and the multiple of such number, by the amount 
of a district quota, is assigned as the "apportionment, according to 
districts," of such city or county. 

Fourth. The remaining two-thirds of the residue of public money is 
then apportioned to the respective counties and cities in proportion to 
their population, and is denominated, in the pertificate, " apportionment 
according to population." It is only this sum that is subject to reappor- 
tionment by the school commissioners; and every special permission 
granted by the superintendent, to include a district in the apportion- 
ment of public moneys, relates only to its share in this sum, or what 
has been denominated its " pupil quota," and not to the district quota 
in any case, or to library quota unless specially mentioned. 

The second clause of No. 32 declares the duty of the school 
commissioners with respect to the " apportionment according to dis- 
tricts," certified to them by the State Superintendent for their respective 
counties. This duty is to assign to each separate neighborhood and 
district the district quota which has already been apportioned to it by 
the superintendent ; that is to say, to credit each separate neighborhood 
and district, having its school-house within thoir county, with its quota 
or quotas, according to the number of children between four and 
twenty-one years of age in the separate neighborhood, and according to 
the number of teachers employed at the same time for six months or 
over in the districts respectively. Inasmuch as the apportionment made 
by the superintendent must have been based upon a report furnished 
by the school commisssoner or his predecessor in ofiice, a reference to 
that report will enable him to determine to which districts a double or 
larger quota has been apportioned, to which districts a single quota, and 
to which (in consequence of no report having been received from it, or 
of its having failed to have had a school taught by a qualified teacher 
for six months or over) none at all. If the records and papers of the 
school commissioners are properly kept, no difficulty will be found in 
ascertaining the respective quotas of the districts ; and the requisite infor- 
mation will be furnished by the department, in cases which appear sus- 
ceptible of doubt. In case, however, the commissioners find themselves 
unable to distribute the district quotas without applying for instructions 



SCHOOL MONEYS. 131 

from the department, they should not on this account delay the appor- 
tionment of pupil quotas under the next clause, but make and transmit 
their certificates, and complete the same by a supplemental certificate, in 
respect to the district quota, as soon as possible afterwards. The super- 
visors should not be delayed, in obtaining from the county treasurer 
what moneys may be wanted for the immediate payment of teachers in 
their respective towns, by any delay in the commissioners making the 
apportionment according to pupils. 

The third clause of No. 32 defines the duty of the school commis- 
sioners in apportioning the pupil and library quota to the respective 
districts within their jurisdiction. For this purpose they are to ascer- 
tain from the reports of the trustees of the last preceding school year 
the number of children between the ages of four and twenty-one years 
in each separate neighborhood, each district, and each part within their 
jurisdiction of a joint district, the remaining part or parts of which are 
situated in a city, or in some town or towns in an adjoining county. 

It may happen that several children are twice enumerated in the 
reports of the trustees, being claimed as residents of two districts, and 
that the trustees have not yet been brought to agree in the requisite 
corrections. In case the doubt relates only to which of two districts, 
both lying entirely within the jurisdiction of the commissioners, certain 
pupils should be assigned, there is no difficulty in arriving at the whole 
number which is to constitute the divisor of the money apportioned to 
the county according to population. All there is to do is to exclude 
them from being counted more than once in making up the sum total. 
Divide the money apportioned according to population for teachers' 
wages by the whole number of children, and the quotient will be the 
sum to which each district is entitled for each pupil resident within its 
bounds. This sum, multiplied by the admitted number of pupils in each 
separate neighborhood, district and part, will give the teachers' money 
to which such neighborhood, district or part is entitled without dispute. 
There will then remain unapportioned a sum equal to the number of; 
children whose residence is in dispute, multiplied by the common, 
multiple, which indicates the money to which a district is entitled for 
each pupil. This sum should be stated in the commissioner's certificate 
as " reserved for apportionment by a supplemental certificate ;" and after 
stating in the certificate the sum to which each district is entitled^ 
without dispute, the additional amount to which it may be entitled 
should be stated as " contingent upon supplemental apportionment." 
The object is, that the apportionment should be perfected as far as possi-. 



132 APPORTIONMENT OF 

ble ■without waiting for the final determination in regard to the small 
sums in dispute upon appeal to the State Superintendent or otherwise. 
The same method is applicable to the apportionment of library money 
which is affected in the same way by any doubt as to the district in 
which pupils ought legally to be enumerated. 

A case may arise in which the question is, not whether certain chil- 
dren should be enumerated as residents of one district within the. county 
or of another, but whether they should be enumerated in the county at 
all. For example, the trustees of a district may have enumerated the 
pupils at a boarding school who are the children of residents in other 
counties of this state, and may not liave corrected their report at the 
time the commissioners are called upon to make the apportionment. 
To include such children Avill have the eff"ect to reduce in a slight 
degree the apportionment of every other district in the county. To 
exclude them, however, would enhance the teachers' money of every 
other district, ordinarily by an amount so trifling as to be of no conse- 
quence to those districts, while it would deprive the district claiming to 
enumerate them of an amount which might be of serious importance to 
it. It is advisable, therefore, in cases where any serious argument can 
be made in support of the enumeration of such disputed residents, to 
count them in the aggregate of pupils in the county, but to exclude them 
in apportioning the money to the district in which they are claimed ; 
stating at the same time in the certificate the amount, to which a decision 
in favor of the right of the district to enumerate them would entitle it,as 
" contingent upon supplemental apportionment." If its claim is sus- 
tained by the department, the supplemental certificate should be filed ; 
if, on the contrary, the claim is rejected, the sum thus reserved may be 
apportioned in a supplemental certificate, or, if the amount is very small, 
may remain in the county treasury and be apportioned with that 
received the next year. 

The course herein recommended accords with that sanctioned by 
Superintendent Dix, in 1834 (Common School Decisions, page 181 ), and 
enjoined by his successors at various times since. 

After the amount to which a district is entitled is thus ascertained, a 
portion thereof is, in certain cases, to be deducted for the support of 
schools for colored Children. For instructions upon this point, see the 
remarks under a subsequent section relating to that subject. 

A deduction is also to be made for the public moneys apportioned to 
any district on account of Indian children who may be enumerated as 
residents therein, and the amount apportioned on their account to be 



SCHOOL MONEYS. 133 

separately stated in the certificate, so that the same may "be devoted 
exclusively to their education in separate Indian schools, if they elect to 
attend such under the regulations for that purpose to be made by the 
State Superintendent, 

The fourth clause of No. 32 restricts the apportionment to those 
neighborhoods, districts and parts as to which it appears, from the report 
of the trustees thereof for the last preceding school year, that a public 
school was supported by the inhabitants and taught by a duly qualified 
teacher for at least six months during the year ending with the date of 
such report, except by special permission of the State Superintendent. 

Section 2, of chap. 237 of 1838, amended the Revised Statutes by 
requiring school to be kept four months, instead of three, to entitle the 
district to an apportionment, " which four months," it declared in express 
terms, " shall be kept by a qualified teacher or teachers after obtaining a 
certificate of competency from the school inspectors." This was a legis- 
lative exposition of the principle, suflSciently manifest without it, that a 
certificate cannot be regarded as having a retroactive operation, and this 
construction has been enforced by the department in applying the sta- 
tute of 1851, which extended the necessary period of instruction from 
four months to six. 

Section 24, title 2, chap. 15, part 1 of the Revised Statutes super- 
added, as a condition to be fulfilled before a district can be entitled to 
an apportionment, that it shall appear from the report for the last pre- 
ceding school year " that all moneys received from the commissioners 
during that year have been applied to the compensation of such teacher," 
i. e., a teacher possessing a proper certificate of qualification. Sec. 11, 
chap. 480 of 1847, reenacted this provision, and added to it the further 
condition that it shall appear from such report " that no other than a 
duly qualified teacher had, at any time during the year, for more than 
one month been employed to teach the school in said district." Neither 
of these provisions have been repealed ; and a failure to^ comply with 
either of them will render necessary an application to the Superinten- 
dent of Public Instruction for an order granting special permission to 
the commissioners to include the delinquent district in the apportion- 
ment. 

As every order of the department is in its nature a judicial act, and 
must be based upon legal evidence, an affidavit, duly verified by the 
trustees or some of them, must be forwarded, stating, 1st. The delin- 
quency which excludes the district from the. right to an apportion^ 
ment. If it consist in the fact that a school has not been maintained 



-134 APPORTIONMENT OF 

for six montlis by a qualified teacher, the affidavit should set forth 
precisely how long it was taught by a qualified teacher, and for how 
long a period, if any, by a teacher not possessing a proper certificate. 
If it consist in the fact that the money apportioned in the preceding 
year was not wholly expended, it should state how much ;?Vas expended, 
or how much remained unexpended. All money is to be regarded as 
expended for which the trustees have given a valid order to a qualified 
teacher, although such order may be outstanding on the 1st of January, 
in the hands of such teacher or of his assignee, not having been pre- 
sented to the supervisor for payment. 2d. The affidavit must state with 
precision the facts and circumstances which occasioned the delinquency 
and are supposed to excuse it. The statute confers the power upon the 
superintendent to " direct an apportionment according to the equitable 
circumstances" where an apportionment shall not have been made to any 
school district in consequence of any acc^c?enta^ omission to make any 
report required by law or to comply with any other provision of law or 
any regulation. It is not the object of the statute to relieve the district, 
when the money is lost by a willful violation of duty or the sheer neg- 
lect of the trustees. In such cases the law gives the.districl an ample 
remedy against them, personally; and it is against public policy that any 
encouragement should be given to such neglect, by relieving them from 
its penalty. Such circumstances as the destruction of a school-house by 
fire, and the inability after suitable eff"ort to procure rooms for tempo- 
rary use as a school-house ; the casual sickness of a teacher, so late in 
the year that after reasonable effort another qualified person could not 
be found to complete the six months' instruction before the 31st of De- 
cember ; such and similar cases of unavoidable accident and hardship, 
are those which the law intends as the subject of relief. The facts 
must be stated, and not simply the conclusions of the trustees in respect 
to them, for it is the duty of the superintendent to judge of the validity 
of those conclusions. For exarhple, the trustees may state in all honesty 
that they were unable to procure a teacher, where if the facts were 
fairly set forth it would be seen that the only reason of such failure was 
that they off"ered an entirely inadequate fiompensation. 

The fifth clause of No. 32 requires the commissioners, after ascertain- 
ing the amount apportioned hy them to each separate neighborhood, 
district and part district, to collect and arrange those amounts, so as to 
show what and how many of them are to be set apart to each town 
within their jurisdiction. Each district lying wholly within their juris- 
diction is to be regarded, for this purpose, as if it were situated entirely 



SCHOOL MONEYS. 



135 



within the town which contains its school-house. In the case of a 
district which possesses two or more school-hoijses, the whole district is 
to be regarded as being in that town in which its principal or earliest 
built school-house is situated. To, each town is also to be set apart the 
apportionment for any part of a joint district lying therein, the other 
part of which joint district is situated in a city or in an adjoining county. 
It is only in this case that part districts are recognized in the appor- 
tionment. 

The sixth clause of No. 32 directs the commissioners to make a 
certificate, which is to show the amount apportioned to each separate 
neighborhood, district and part of a joint district (in the case above 
mentioned ) by them, and also the amount apportioned by the State 
Superintendent to each separate neighborhood and to each district 
having its school-house in the county. These should be separately 
stated. The following form may be adopted for the certificate : 

The undersigned, school commissioners for the county of 
do hereby certify that the sums of money set opposite to the several 
separate neighborhoods, school districts and parts of districts, within their 
jurisdiction in said county, have been apportioned to them respectively 
by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction as district quotas, to 
be applied to the payiiient of teachers, ana oy the undersigned com- 
missioners for the payment of teachers' wages and for library purposes, 
according to the headings of the columns in which said sums are respec- 
tively set down, viz : 



Town of , 


For Tpacheus' Wages 


For 

LiBUARIES. 


Total. 




District 
quota. 


Pupil 
quota. 




Separate neio'hborhood 


S4 62 
30 10 
60 20 

00 

00 


$9 80 

35 70 

106 40 

15 40 

2 10 


$0 00 
2 80.5 
8 36 

1 22 

16.5 


$14 42 


Dist. No. 1, 


68 60.5 


Dist. No. 2, 


174 96 


(Indians.) 

Part of Joint District No. 3, 

Do. contingent, on supplemental ap- 
portionment, 


16 62 
2 26.5 






Aggregate (omitting contingent), . . . 


$94 92 


S167 30 


12 38.5 


$274 60.5 



The table is to be continued in the same manner for each town in the 
county. 

In the above specimen table, District No. 2 is supposed to have main- 
tained two teachers for six months, while District No. 1 maintained but 
one, and Joint District No. 3 to have been entitled to no district quota, 



136 APPORTIONMENT OF 

or to have its school-house in an adjoining county or city. In the lat- 
ter case, its district quota will appear in the certificate of the commis- 
sioners of such adjoining county or city. 

The separate neighborhood is supposed to have fourteen residents, 
between four and twenty-one years of age; No. 1, 51 ; No. 2, 152; 
and the part of Joint District No. 3 to have twenty-two admitted resi- 
dents, and to claim three in addition, whose residence is disputed, and 
the apportionment on account of them is therefore set down as con- 
tingent. 

The seventh clause of No. 32 directs the commissioners to send one 
copy of their certificate to the county treasurer and another to the state 
superintendent. 

The most convenient form in which to furnish the certificate therein 
required, to be sent to the supervisor of each town, will be to make a 
transcript of so much of the table of apportionment as relates to the 
town, and annex thereto a certificate substantially as follows : 

To the supervisor of the town of 

" The undersigned, school commissioners for the county of 
hereby certify that the foregoing table is a transcript of so much of the 
apportionment of school moneys for the year 1857 as relates to the 
town of , in said county, and that the several sums set oppo- 

site to each separate neighborhood, district and part of a district, are 
the sums which are to be paid upon the orders of the trustees of such 
neighborhoods and districts respectively for teachers' wages, and to such 
trustees for library purposes, according to the headings of the columns 
in which such sums are respectively contained, and that the total 
amount of school moneys so apportioned, which you are now entitled 
to receive from the county treasurer, is $ ." State the aggregate, 

excluding all sums contingent upon supplemental apportionment. 

When the right to any moneys contingently apportioned has been 
finally determined, the commissioners should transmit to the supervisor 
of the town a certificate stating that fact, and that he is entitled to re- 
ceive from the county treasurer the further sums of for teach- 
ers' wages, and for library purposes, stating the districts to 
which they have been adjudged to belong. They should also transmit 
to the county treasurer a supplemental certificate of apportionment, in 
the form above given, except that it should state that "the sums of 
money heretofore contingently apportioned have been finally appor- 
tioned to the respective districts, &c., opposite to which they are set, to 



SCHOOL MONEYS. I3l 

be applied to teachers' wages and to library purposes, according to the 
heading of the columns," &c. 

No. 33. When the census or returns, upon which an appor- 
tionment is to be made, shall be so far defective in respect to 
any county, city or town as to render it impracticable for the 
superintendent to ascertain the share of scliool moneys which 
ought then to be apportioned to such county, city or town, he 
shall ascertain, by the best evidence in his power, the facts 
upon which the ratio of such apportionment shall depend, 
and shall make the apportionment accordingly. ( Sec. 6, title 
2, chap. 15, ]}art 1, Revised Statutes.) 

This section is followed in the Eevised Statutes by another, which 
appears to be rendered inoperative by the statute of 1856, superseding 
the apportionment among towns by the State Superintendent. As, 
however, it has never been expressly repealed, and the anomalous con- 
dition of one county (Schuyler) suggests a case in which an apportion- 
ment between the towns of a county may still be necessary, the section, 
Y, is here inserted. For similar reasons, and for the further one 
that so much of it as directs the apportionment made by the superin- 
tendent to be certified to the comptroller, has not been replaced by any 
subsequent statute, section No. 8 of the same title of the Revised 
Statutes is also here inserted. 

§ Y. Whenever, in consequence of the division of a town, or the 
erection of a new town in any county, the apportionment then in force 
shall become unjust, as between two or more of the towns of such 
county, the superintendent shall make a new apportionment of the 
school moneys next to be distributed amongst such towns, ascertaining 
by the best evidence in his power the facts upon which the ratio of 
apportionment, as to such towns, shall depend. 

§ 8. The superintendent shall certify each apportionment made by 
him to the comptroller, and shall give immediate notice thereof to the 
clerk of each county interested therein and to the clerk of the city and 
county of New- York ; stating the amount of moneys apportioned to his 
county and to each town and city therein, and the time when the same 
will be payable to the treasurer of such county or to the chamberlain 
of the city of New-York. 

No. 34. It shall be the duty of the clerk of the board of 
supervisors in each county of this state, on the last day of 
December in each year, to transmit to the Superintendent of 

iCoDE.] 18 



138 PAYMENT OF SCHOOL MONEYS 

common schools [Public Instruction] certified copies of all 
resolutions and proceedings of the board of supervisors, of 
which he is clerk, passed or had during the preceding year, 
relating to the raising of any money for school or library pur- 
poses and to report particularly the amount of such moneys 
directed to be raised each town of said county ; and in case it 
shall not appear that the amount required by law to be raised 
for school and library purposes has been directed to be raised 
during the year by the board of supervisors of any county, 
the Superintendent of common schools [Public Instruction] 
and the comptroller may direct that the money appropriated 
by the state, and apportioned to such county, be withheld 
until the amount that may be deficient shall be raised, or that 
so much only of the money apportioned to such county be 
paid to the treasurer thereof as shall be equal to the amount 
directed to be raised therein by the supervisors of such county j 
and in such case the balance so withheld shall be added to 
the principal of the common school fund. ( Sec. 3, chaj). 330 
of 1839.) 

It will be seen by No. 41, post, that an additional remedy is provided 
for the case where, though the board of supervisors have directed the 
raising of the school tax upon their county, the actual collection and 
payment thereof into the state treasury is delayed beyond the proper 
time. 



OF THE PAYMENT OF SCHOOL MONEYS INTO THE STATE 
TREASURY, AND OF THEIR DISTRIBUTION. 

No. 35. Dues to the state, which have heretofore been paid 
to the secretary of state in the capacity of superintendent of 
common schools, shall hereafter be paid into the state trea- 
sury; and all balances, now standing to the credit of the 
superintendent of conimon schools or the Superintendent Of 
Public Instruction, shall be immediately transferred to the 
credit of the treasurer of the state. ( Sec. 1, chap. 228 of 1854. ) 

No. 36. The treasurer shall transfer from one depository to 
another, by a draft to be countersigned and entered by the 
Superintendent of Public Instruction, any school moneys 
standing to his credit ; and no such moneys shall be transfer- 
red from one depository to another except by such draft 
{Sec.2, chap. 228 of 1854:.) 



AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION. 139 

No. 37. All moneys, now authorized by law to be paid or 
advanced by the superintendent of common schools or the 
Superintendent of Public Instruction, and all moneys which 
shall hereafter be authorized to be paid or advanced out of 
the school moneys, shall be paid by the treasurer upon the 
warrant of the Superintendent of Public Instruction ; but no 
warrant shall be drawn, unless authorized by law, and shall 
refer to the law under which it is drawn. ( Sec. 3, chap. 228 
0/1854.) 

This provision is " limited in its application to school moneys raised 
by taxation" by the third section of chap. 18 of 1855, No. 39, ^os^ 
So much of the school moneys as are derived from the revenues of the 
school fund and of the United States deposit fund are distributed upon 
the warrant of the comptroller, according to a certificate made to him 
by the superintendent of the share of such moneys to which each county 
and city is entitled. 

No. 38. The said superintendent shall countersign and enter 
all checks drawn by the treasurer in payment of his warrants, 
and all receipts for school moneys paid to the treasurer, and 
no such receipt shall be evidence of payment unless so coun- 
tersigned. (Sec. 4, chap. 228 o/1854.) 

Limited, as mentioned in note to No. 37. 

No. 39. The act entitled " An act in relation to school 
moneys," passed April 15, 1854, shall be limited in its appli- 
cation to school moneys raised by taxation. ( Sec. 3, chap. 18 
0/1855.) 

The act herein mentioned consists of the four preceding sections, 
Nos. 35, 36, 37 38, 

No. 40. The sum annually to be distributed for the encour- 
agement of common schools shall be paid on the 1st day of 
February in every year, on the warrant of the comptroller, 
to the treasurers of the several counties and the chamberlain 
of the city of New- York. ( Sec. 12, title 2, cJiap. 15, fart 1 of 
Revised Statutes.) 

The article in which the preceding section is contained is entitled, 
" Of the Distribution of the Common School Fund ;" and the sum 
annually to be distributed, at the time that article took effect, was the 



140 PAYMENT OF SCHOOL MONEYS 

appropriation from the revenue of the common school fund, as stated in 
the note to No. 25. By chap. 237 of 1838, the sums of $110,000 for 
teachers' wages, and $55,000 for district libraries, were appi'opriated 
from the income of the United States deposit fund, and directed to be 
distributed " in like manner and upon the like conditions as the school 
moneys are now or shall be hereafter distributed," The sum required 
to be distributed on the first day of February, on the warrant of the 
comptroller, does not include the proceeds of the state tax for the sup- 
port of schools which are paid on the warrant of the superintendent. 
See No. 37 and note thereto. 

No. 41. The comptroller is hereby authorized to withhold 
the payment of any moneys, to which any county may be 
entitled from the appropriation of the incomes of the school 
fund and the United States deposit fund for the support of 
schools, until satisfactory evidence shall be furnished to him 
that all moneys required by law to be raised by taxation upon 
such county, for the support of schools throughout the state, 
have been collected and paid, or accounted for to the state 
treasurer ; and whenever, in consequence of the failure of 
any county to pay such moneys, there shall be a deficiency 
of moneys in the treasury applicable to the payment of school 
moneys to which any other county may be entitled, the trea- 
surer and Superintendent of Public Instruction are hereby 
authorized to make a temporary loan of the amount so defi- 
cient; and such loan, and the interest thereon until payment 
shall be made to the treasury, shall be a charge upon the 
county or counties in default, in proportion to the amount 
and duration of its or their defalcation respectively, and shall 
be added to the amount of state tax, and levied upon such 
county or counties by the board of supervisors thereof, at the 
next ensuing assessment, and shall be paid into the treasury 
in the same manner as other taxes. {Sec. 2, chap. 18 of 1855.) 

The object of the legislature in the preceding provision was to pre- 
vent the moneys raised for school purposes in the several counties from 
being withheld from the state treasury, and being temporarily employed 
to supply the deficiencies in the county treasuries arising from delay 
in the collection of taxes imposed for county purposes. It is therefore 
required that the county's proportion of the school tax should have 
been actually collected, and either paid into the state treasury or accounted 
for — as it might be by receipts from the supervisors of their respective 



AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION. 141 

towns, showing tlie payment to them, on account of the apportionment 
to their towns made by the State Superintendent and the school com- 
missioners, of an amount equal in tne aggregate to the school tax due 
from the county — before the county treasurer is authorized to require 
from the comptroller a warrant for the amount apportioned to his county 
from the incomes of the school fund and United States deposit fund. 

It also subjects the county to the payment of interest upon so much 
of its school tax as is withheld from the state treasury, whenever it 
becomes necessary to make a loan to furnish the state treasury with the 
funds for the payment of school moneys to any other county which is 
not in default, and is therefore entitled to immediate payment. 

It is obviously, therefore, the duty of the county treasurer, for the 
purpose of protecting his county from the liability to the payment of 
interest on a loan to be made on its account, to regard the first moneys 
which come to his hands from the town collectors as belonging exclu- 
sively to the school fund. Other claims may be postponed without 
incurring a charge for interest, while this cannot. The power and duty 
of the treasurer and State Superintendent to make loans under this sec- 
tion is not suspended, when, as is often the case, the legislature extends 
the time for the collection of taxes ; and it would be most unjust that 
the schools should suffer in those counties which have collected their 
taxes promptly, for want of the exercise of that power, at the expense 
of the counties where their collection is delayed, either by an extension 
of the time for collection or by the return of non-resident lands. In 
the latter case, the county treasurer can obtain the money or a credit 
thereof from the comptroller, for all the arrears of taxes admitted by 
him, and should not therefore subject the school tax to any deduc- 
tion or reservation on account of returned lands. 

No. 42. The treasurer of each county, and the chamberlain 
of the city of New- York, shall apply for and receive the 
school moneys apportioned to their respective counties, as soon 
as the same become payable. {Sec. 13, title2, chap. 15, part 1, 
Revised Statutes.-) 

No. 43. Each treasurer receiving such moneys shall give 
notice in w^riting to some one or more of the commissioners 
of common schools [supervisor] of each tow^n or city in his 
county, of the amount apportioned to such town or city, and 
shall hold the same, subject to the order of such [supervisor] 



142 PAYMENT OF SCHOOL MONEYS 

commissioners. {Sec. 14, title 2, cha/p. 15, part 1, Revised 
Statutes. ) 

No. 32, ante, provides for a notice, from the school commissioners to 
the supervisor of each town, of the amount apportioned thereto. The 
only object of a notice from the treasurer is that the supervisor should 
he informed that the money is actually in the treasury, subject to his 
order. While the supervisor should not wait for such notice, the obli- 
gation to give which is now rather matter of argument than of express 
injunction, there is an obvious propriety in the treasurer giving it at 
the earliest possible day. 

No. 44. The public school moneys heretofore paid to town 
superintendents, or on their orders, shall be paid only to the 
supervisors of the towns. ( Sec. 19, chap. 179 of 1856. ) 

Treasurers of counties have no right to deduct from the amount of 
the school moneys apportioned to each town a commission of one per 
cent. They are unquestionably entitled to such a commission, under 
sec. 26, 1 R. S., 370, on the moneys received and paid by them for the use 
of the common schools ; but they have no right to diminish the amount 
of the moneys placed in their hands for distribution, under an appor- 
tionm'ent, by the superintendent. Their commission is a charge upon 
the county, and not upon the common school fund. ( Com. School, Dec's, 
279.) 

No. 45. Before the county treasurer of any county shall 
pay over to the supervisor of any town in said county the 
public school moneys apportioned for the support of schools 
therein, he shall require the said supervisor to deposit with 
him a bond to the treasurer, in behalf of the town, executed 
by said supervisor, with two or more sufficient sureties, to be 
approved by said treasurer, in the penalty of double the 
amount of said school moneys, conditioned for the faithful dis- 
bursement, safe keeping and accounting for such moneys, and 
of all other school moneys that may come into his hands from 
any other source ; and whenever the said bond shall be for- 
feited, it shall be the duty of the county treasurer to prosecute 
for the penalty of the same, in his own name, in behalf of the 
town, and the money recovered shall be paid over to the 
supervisor of the town succeeding the supervisor in default. 
( Sec. 20, chaii. 179 of 1856. ) 



AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION. ' 143 

The bond to be given under this section must be renewed every year, 
as its penalty in each case is to be double the amount of the school 
moneys then to be paid. Its form may be as follows : 

Know all men by these presents, that we, John Doe, supervisor of 

the town of , in the county of , and Richard Roe and 

Samuel Styles, of the same town (or as their residence respectively 
may be), as his sureties, are held and firmly bound unto Stephen 

Holdfast, treasurer of the county of , in the penalty of 

dollars and cents (being double the amount of the public moneys 

apportioned for the support of schools in the town of , aforesaid), 

to be paid to the said Stephen Holdfast, treasurer, his successors in 
office, attorney or assigns ; to which payment, well and truly to be made, 
we bind ourselves jointly and severally by these presents, sealed with our 
seals and dated this day of , in the year of our Lord . 

The condition of this obligation is such, that if the above bounden 
John Doe, supervisor, shall faithfully disburse, safely keep and justly 
account for the school moneys apportioned as aforesaid, and all other 
school moneys that may come into his hands from any other source, 
then this obligation to be void, otherwise to remain in full force and 
virtue. 

John Doe. [ l. s. ] 

Richard Roe. [ l. s. ] 
Samuel Styles. [ l. s. ] 

This bond as a matter of prudence should be acknowledged before a 
commissioner of deeds or other officer authorized to take acknowledg- 
ments, and the sureties should be required to indorse upon the bond an 
affidavit that each of them is a freeholder, and worth the amount of the 
penalty over and above all debts incurred or liabilities assumed by him. 
It is only upon such an affidavit that bonds required in legal proceedings 
are approved ; and it is a matter of justice to the county treasurer that 
he should protect himself from personal liability for taking an insufficient 
bond by following the legal method of ascertaining its sufficiency. If, 
after such affidavits are indorsed on the bond, the county treasurer is 
satisfied with the sureties, he should indorse his approval in the follow- 
ing form : 

I hereby approve the within bond, as to its form and manner of exe- 
cution and the sufficiency of the sureties therein. Dated . 

Stephen Holdfast, 

Treasurer of County. 



J44 PAYMENT OF SCHOOL MONEYS. 

No. 46. In case the commissioners [supervisor] of any 
such city or town shall not apply for and receive such 
moneys, or in case there are no commissioners appointed in 
the same before the next receipt of moneys apportioned to 
the county, the moneys so remaining with the treasurer shall 
be retained by him, and be added to the moneys next received 
by him for distribution from the Superintendent of common 
schools [Public Instruction], and be distributed therewith 
and in the same proportion. {Sec. 15, tit. 2, chap. 15, part 1 
of Revised Statutes.) 

The commissioners referred to in this section are not the school com- 
missioners of the county, but " commissioners of common schools," a 
board of town officers, whose office was abolished by chap. 133 of 1843, 
and their duties devolved upon the " town superintendent of common 
schools." All the duties of town superintendents in relation to the 
receipt and disbursement of school moneys being, by chap. 179 of 1856, 
devolved upon the supervisors, the latter officer stands in the place of 
the former town commissioners of common schools for all the purposes 
of the preceding section. 

The case provided for by this section is now of very improbable 
occurrence , and the mode of disposmg of the money remaining with 
the treasurer is inconsistent with the requisitions of subsequent statutes. 
So far as the money apportioned to the town for " district quotas" is 
concerned, it is not a thing of proportion, as between the towns of the 
county ; and the right of a district thereto, having vested for any one 
year, is not to be affected by a different distribution made in the suc- 
ceeding year. The same is true in relation to the money apportioned 
for pupil quotas and for libraries. The possession by the county 
treasurer must be regarded, so far as the rights of the districts are con- 
cerned, precisely as its possession by the supervisor would have been, 
had the latter received it, as he ought to have done. Further legislation 
may be necessary to provide a proper remedj'^ for the districts, in the 
default of a supervisor to receive and hold the money as their trustee ; 
but so much of the section as might seem to authorize a distribution of 
it by the treasurer to the several towns of his county must, from its 
inconsistency with the existing law, be deemed to be repealed. 

No. 47. The amount of money necessary to pay the salaries 
of the school commissioners, and which shall be annually 
apportioned by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction 



DISBURSEMENT OF MONEYS. 145 

from the United States deposit fund for that purpose, as here- 
inbefore provided, shall be drawn from the income of that 
fund, upon the warrant of the comptroller, and retained in the 
treasury to be paid out by the treasurer to the several school 
commissioners, upon the order of the said State Superin- 
tendent. (Sec. 32, chap. 179 o/1856.) 



OF THE CUSTODY AND DISBURSEMENT OF SCHOOL 
MONEYS BY THE SUPERVISORS OF TOWNS. 

No. 48. Whenever the board of supervisors of any county 
in this state shall have appointed a commissioner or commis- 
sioners, in pursuance of this act, and such officers shall have 
taken the constitutional oath of office, henceforth, and after 
that time, the office of town superintendent of common 
schools for the several towns in such county shall be abol- 
ished, and each town superintendent shall forthwith pay over 
to the supervisor of his town all school moneys unexpended, 
with a filll statement of all moneys received and paid out by 
him since the last annual report made by him or his prede- 
cessor, and of the moneys remaining in his or his predecessor's 
hands at the time of making such report. He shall also 
specify in such statement the last apportionment made to the 
school districts, separate neighborhoods and parts of joint 
districts in his town, and shall also state specifically the part 
of such apportionment paid to each, and the balance thereof 
due to each. If it shall appear that any former town super- 
intendent has neglected or refused to render to his successor 
in office such full statement of all moneys received and paid 
out by him during his official term or terms, it shall be the 
duty of the commissioners created under this act, or any one 
of them, to require such delinquent town superintendent, by 
notice in writing, to make such return to the supervisor of his 
town within twenty days from the date of such service ; and 
if, after having been duly served with such notice, he still 
neglects or refuses to make such return as aforesaid, or show 
good cause why he has not done so, he shall be guilty of a 
misdemeanor, and it shall be the duty of the supervisor of 
the town, or of any commissioner created by this act, to sue 
for and recover all moneys in the hands of any defaulting 
town superintendent. {Sec. 17, chap. 179 of 1856. ) 

[Code.] 19 



146 CUSTODY AND DISBUESEMENT 

No. 49. Every supervisor who shall embezzle any of such 
moneys, or any moneys that shall come into his hands by 
virtue of this act, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor. 
(Sec. 18, chap. 179 of 1856.) 

No. 50. The said supervisors, in the disbursement of and 
accounting for school moneys which shall come into their 
hands, shall be governed by the same laws and rules as are 
now applicable to town superintendents. Each of the said 
supervisors shall keep a just and true account of all the school 
moneys received and disbursed by him during each year, and 
shall lay the same, with proper vouchers, before the board 
of town auditors, at each annual meeting of such board. ( Sec. 
21, cAop. 179 0/1856.) 

The law which governed town superintendents, and now governs the 
supervisors in the disbursement of so much of tlic school moneys as is 
apportioned for the payment of teachers' wages, requires them to pay it 
upon the written orders drawn upon them by a majority of the trustees 
of each district in favor of qualified teachers. If the order is regular 
upon its face — that is to say, if it bears the signature of a majority of the 
persons acting in fact as trustees of a district, under color of an election, 
in favor of a person whom it states to be a duly qualified teacher em- 
ployed by them in the district during the year in which it is drawn and 
in payment of his wages as such teacher — it is a suflBcient voucher for 
the supervisor, and it is not for him to inquire whether the trustees 
have exceeded their authority or acted improperly in drawing the order. 
If presented by any other person than the teacher in whose favor it is 
drawn, it should bear his written indorsement, or order for payment 
to a specified person. 

Library money may be paid to any person upon the written order of 
a majority of the trustees, or to either of the trustees upon the written 
receipt of a majority of them. 

The account to be kept under this section may be a simple cash 
account, in which the supervisor, personally and in his individual name, 
is charged with all school moneys received by him and credited with 
each payment, specifying the date, the person to whom and the account 
on which it was made. It would conduce to accuracy and convenience, 
in passing his accounts before the board of town auditors, to number 
each credit consecutively, and to affix the same number to the order^ 
receipt or other voucher to be produced in proof of payment and in 



OF SCHOOL MONEYS. 147 

support of such credit. This account should be kept in a bound book, 
to be handed over to his successor in oflBce, and a transcript of such 
account be drawn off, and, with the accompanying vouchers, be pre- 
sented to the board of town auditors for their examination. As that 
examination may take place before the close of his official term, it would 
be well, upon its completion, to have the town auditors enter upon the 
original account, in the blank book, their certificate that they have 
examined such account up to and including tlie last preceding entry 
(giving its date) and the vouchers therefor and have audited and allowed 
the same. 

In addition to the cash account of the individual supervisor, a con- 
tinuous account is to be kept between each district and the supervisor, 
officially, Avithout break or change when a new incumbent succeeds to 
the office, as will be explained under No. 51. 

The board of town auditors is required by law to meet annually in 
each town, at the place of holding the last town meeting, on the last 
Thursday preceding the annual meeting of the board of supervisors of the 
county. ( Chap. 228 of 1844.) It consists, for the purpose' of examining 
the supervisor's account, of the town clerk and justices of the peace, or 
any two of the justices of the peace. The supervisor, who is ordinarily 
a member, cannot, of course, act in his own case. The account to be 
presented to them, is to be accompanied by an affidavit, attached to and 
to be filed with such account, made by the person presenting or claim- 
ing the same, that th? items of such account are correct, and that the 
disbursements charged therein have been in fact made. ( Sec. 2, chap. 
490 o/ 184*7.; 

No. 51. The said supervisor shall, within fifteen days .ifter 
the termination of his office, render to his successor in office 
a just and true account, in writing, of all school moneys by 
him received before the time of rendering such account, and 
of the manner in which the same or any part thereof shall 
have been expended by him ; and the account so rendered 
shall be delivered by such successor in office to the town 
clerk, to be filed and recorded in his office ; and the town 
clerk shall forthwith send a copy of such account to the 
school commissioner. Each supervisor shall keep a bound 
blank book, in which all his receipts and disbursements of 
school moneys shall be entered by him, specifying from 
whom, and the purpose for which they were received; and 
to whom, and»the purpose for which they were paid out. 



148 



CUSTODY AND DISBURSEMENT 



The cost of such book shall be a charge upon his town ; and 
said book shall be delivered to his successor in office. {Sec. 
22, chap. 179 0/1856.) 

The account to be rendered by the supervisor to his successor in 
oflSce, includes as well that portion thereof which has been examined 
by the town auditors as that which relates to his subsequent receipts 
and disbursements. . Inasmuch as it is to be filed and recorded in the 
ofiice of the town clerk, it must, independent of and in addition to the 
original cash account, be entered upon the blank book. 

The object of an account book to be kept by the supervisor and to 
pass to his successors in office, is to enable the latter to ascertain at any 
future time the state of the accounts of each district with any of their 
predecessors at any given date. To effect this object it is essential that 
a separate account should be kept with the trustees of each district and 
separate neighborhood, regarding them as a perpetual corporation. It 
is in substance an account between the district and the town, which is 
not broken or affected by any change in the officers of either. It may 
be in the following form : 

Trustees of District No. 2, with the Supervisor of town of . 



Dr. 

1856. 

July 27th. To paid Miss Anna 
Davis, teacher's wages, 
on order of /. D. and 
G. S., trustees (voucher 
No. 12), 

Sept. 3d. Paid Noah Parsons 
on teacher's wages, on 
order of J. D. and L. M. , 
trustees (voucher No. 
33), 

Sept. 25th. Paid L. M. and 
P. S., trustees, library 
■money (voucher No. 46), 

Oct. -J22d. To copy Code of 
Public Instruction, 



S42 


60 


21 


20 


4 


18 


1 


50 



Cr. 

1856. 

June 7th. By cash received 
from late town super- 
intendent for teachers' 



wages, 

Do. for library, 

1857. 

April 2d. Cash of county 
treasurer for teachers' 

wages, 

Do. for library, 

May 12th. Cash of county 
treasurer on supplemen- 
tal apportionment for 

teachers' wages, 

Do. for library, 



$63 
4 



166 



80 
18 



60 

36 



No^ -52. On rendering such account, if any balance shall 
be fouiiad remaining in the hands of such supervisor, the same 
shall be immediately paid by him to his successor in office, 
who shaill hold it subject to the order of the trustees of any 
school districts, parts of district, or to the trustee of any sepa- 
rate neighborhood, to which the same may have been appor- 
tioned, and which shall be entitled to receive it. ( Sec. 23, 
chap. 179 0/1856.) , " 



OF SCHOOL MONEYS. 149 

The orders and other vouchers of the account of the supervisor going 
out of office belong to him only in his official character, and should be 
delivered to his successor, precisely as if he was vacating an official 
place of business in which such vouchers were by law required to be filed 
and kept. On turning them over to his successor, the latter should 
give to his predecessor a receipt which may be substantially in the 
following form : 

Received of John Doe, late supervisor of the town of , 

dollars and cents for balance of school moneys remaining 

in his hands. 

Also, vouchers from No, to No. , both inclusive, in support 

of his charges for disbursements, bearing the same numbers in his cash 

account, and amounting in the aggregate to the sum of dollars 

and cents. 

Also, one (or two or more, as the case may be) bound account book, 
and one copy Hull's Treatise on Town Officers ( or whatever other books, 
papers or other property are in his custody as supervisor). Dated 

R, EoE, Supervisor of . 

The account book should contain an inventory of all books or other 
property which may from time to time come into the custody of the 
supervisor in the discharge of his duties as a school officer. 

No. 53. It shall be the duty of the supervisor, by his name 
of office, to sue for and recover all penalties and forfeitures 
imposed by any act relating to schools in respect to vv^hich 
no provision is made, or for any default or omission by any 
town superintendent, or any other tov^n officer or school 
district officer or officers, now required to be sued for by the 
town superintendent ; and, after deducting his costs and 
expenses, shall report the balance in his hands to the com- 
missioner, who shall apportion the same to the district or 
districts to which the same may belong. ( Sec. 24, cha^. 179 
0/1856.) 

The commissioner to whom the sums collected for penalties and for- 
feitures are to be reported, is the school commissioner of the assembly 
district or section of a county in which the supervisor's town is situated. 
It will be requisite to state in the report under what section of the law 
and against what school officer the several penalties were recovered, to 
enable the commissioner to determine whether they belong to any and 
what district, or are to be apportioned to several districts. 



150 CUSTODY AND DISBURSEMENT. 

No. 54. All the powers and duties formerly possessed and 
exercised by the trustees of the gospel and school lots, and sub- 
sequently, by section one of chapter one hundred and eighty- 
six, Laws of one thousand eight hundred and forty six, con- 
ferred upon town superintendents of common schools, are 
hereby conferred and imposed upon the supervisors of towns, 
and shall hereafter be exercised and performed by them. 
( Sec. 27, chap. 179 of 1856. ) 

In accordance with the above sections, whenever the words " town 
superintendents" occur in the following extracts from the statutes, they 
have been changed to " supervisors." 

Town School Funds. 

The act passed in 1789 for the sale of lands belonging to the people 
of this state required the surveyor-general to reserve, in each township, 
one lot for the support of the gospel, and one lot for the use of schools 
in such township. 

The following is a list of the principal reservations of this nature, viz : 

One lot, of 550 acres, in each of the twenty-eight townships in the 
military tract. 

Forty lots, of 250 acres each, in each of the twenty townships west of 
the Unadilla river, being ten thousand acres. 

One lot, of 640 acres, in each of the townships of Fayette, Clinton, 
Greene, Warren, Chenango, Sidney and Hampden, then in the counties 
of Broome and Chenango. 

Ten lots, of 640 acres each, in the townships along the St. Lawrence- 

In the township of Plattsburgh 400 acres were reserved for the use 
of a minister of the gospel, and 460 acres for the use of a public school 
or schools in the said township. 

In the township of Benson 640 acres were reserved for gospel and 
schools. 

By an act passed in 1 798, in relation to gospel and school lots, it is 
provided " that the moneys arising from the leasing of the said lots of 
land as aforesaid, and from the trespasses aforesaid, shall be applied to 
the use of schools or support of the gospel in the original townships, as 
surveyed, in which such lots shall be respectively situated, and for no 
other purpose ; which said apphcation shall be made either for schools 
or gospel, or both, and in such way and manner as the freeholders and 
inhabitants of the towns, in which the same lands shall lie, shall in legal 
town meeting from time to time direct, order and appoint." 



OF SCHOOL MONEYS. 151 

By an act passed in 1808, the act of 1798 was extended to all the 
townships where lots of land are reserved for the support of gospel and 
schools, and the following provision was added : 

"§ 1. Beit enacted, cfcc. That the moneys arising from the annual 
rents and profits of the gospel lots in each township shall be equally 
divided, by the supervisor and commissioners appointed in each town- 
ship, between the several religious societies legally organized in such 
township, and that the money arising from the annual rents and profits 
of the several school lots shall be distributed among the schools kept in 
each respective township, by teachers to be approved of by the super- 
visor and commissioners constituted by the act to which this is an 
amendment, or a majority of them in said township, in proportion to 
the aggregate number of days which the scholars in each respective 
school shall have respectively attended such schools in the year imme- 
diately preceding such division." 

The fourth section of an act concerning the gospel and school lots, 
passed in 1813, is as follows : 

" And he it further enacted, That the rents, issues and profits of the 
aforesaid lands, and the annual interest of the moneys arising from the 
sale thereof, shall be applied by the said trustees [supervisor] for the 
time being to the support of the gospel and schools in their several 
towns, in such manner as the freeholders and inhabitants of the towns, 
respectively, at their annual town meeting, shall order and direct, or as 
the legislature shall prescribe by law." [Session Laws o/" 1813, ^3. 151.) 

In 1819, an act was passed in relation to the gospel and school lots, 
which contains the following section : 

" § 2. And be it further enacted, That all moneys now due or here- 
after to become due, and which shall have come into the hands of the 
aforesaid commissioners of public lots, and have not been applied and 
paid over to religious societies, shall be apportioned among the several 
school districts in the several towns of the aforementioned counties 
[Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca], anything in the acts heretofore passed 
to the contrary notwithstanding." 

By § 1 of chap. 186, Laws of 1846, "the office of trustees of the 
gospel and school lots in the several towns in this state is hereby abo- 
lished ; and the powers and duties now by law conferred and imposed 
upon said trustees shall hereafter be exercised by the town superinten- 
dent of common schools [supervisor]." 

By the provisions of chap. 15, title 4, of part 1 of the Revised 
Statutes, the trustees of the several gospel and school lots [supervisor] 
were authorized and required : 

" 1 . To take and hold possession of the gospel and school lot of their town. 

" 2. To lease the same for such time, not exceeding twenty-one years, 
and upon such conditions as they shall deem expedient. 

" 3. To sell the same, with the advice and consent of the inhabitants 
of the town, in town meeting assembled, for such prices and upon such 
terms of credit as shall appear to them most advantageous. 



152 CUSTODY AND DISBURSEMENT 

" 4. To invest the proceeds of sucli sales in loans secured by bond 
and mortgage upon unincumbered real property of the value of double 
the amount loaned. 

" 5. To purchase property so mortgaged upon a foreclosure, and 
to hold and convey the property so purchased, whenever it shall become 
necessary. 

" 6. To release the amount of such loans repaid to them upon the 
like security. 

" 7. To apply the rents and profits of such lots, and the interest of 
the money arising from the sale thereof, to the support of the gospel 
and schools, or either, as may be provided by law, in such manner as 
shall be thus provided. 

" 8. To render a just and true account of the proceeds of the sales, 
and the interest on the loans thereof, and of the rents and profits of 
such gospel and school lots, and of the expenditure and appropriation 
thereof, on the last Tuesday next preceding the annual town meeting 
in each year, to the board of auditors of the accounts of other town 
ofiicers. 

" 9. To deliver over to their successors in oflBce all books, papers and 
securities relating to the same, at the expiration of their respective 
ofiiccs : and 

" 10. To take therefor a receipt, which shall be filed in the clerk's 
ofiice of the town. 

" § 4. The board of auditors in each town shall annually report the 
state of the accounts of the trustees of the gospel and school lots 
[supervisor] in that town to the inhabitants thereof, at their annual 
town meeting. 

" § 5. Whenever a town, having lands assigned to it for the support 
of the gospel or of schools, shall be divided into two or more towns, or 
shall be altered in its limits by the annexing of a part of its territory to 
another town or towns, such lands shall be sold by the trustees [super- 
visor] of the town in which such lands were inclifded immediately 
before such division or alteration ; and the proceeds thereof shall be 
apportioned between the towns interested therein, in the same manner 
as the other public moneys of towns so divided or altered are appor- 
tioned. 

" § 6. The shares of such moneys to which the towns shall be respec- 
tively entitled shall be paid to the trustees of the gospel and school 
lots [supervisor] of the respective towns, and shall thereafter be subject 
to the provisions of this title. 

" § Y, If in either of such towns trustees of gospel and school lots 
shall not have been chosen, or there be none in ofiice, the share of such 
town shall be paid to the supervisor." 

No. 55. All the powers and duties imposed upon the com- 
missioners of common schools, by the act passed April twenty- 
seventh, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine, entitled 
" An act relative to moneys in the hands of overseers of the 



OF SCHOOL MONEYS. 153 

poor," passed April twenty-seventh, one thousand eight hun- 
dred and twenty-nine, are hereby imposed upon the supervi- 
sors of towns. ( Sec. 29, chay. 179 of 1856. ) 

The act herein referred to is as follows ; the word "supervisor" being 
substituted in place of " town superintendent'' wherever the latter is used : 

An Act relative to moneys in the hands of overseers of the poor. 

Passed April 2 Y, 1829. 

"§ 1. It shall be lawful for the inhabitants of any town, in such 
counties as have abolished the distinction between county and town 
paupers, and in such counties as may hereafter abolish such distinction, 
at any annual or special town meeting, to appropriate all or any part 
of the moneys and funds remaining in Sie hands of the overseers of the 
poor of such town, after such abolition, to such objects and for such 
purposes as shall be determined at such meeting. 

" § 2. If any such meeting shall appropriate any such money or funds 
for the benefit of common schools in their town, the money so appro- 
priated shall be denominated ' the common school fund of such town,' 
and shall be under the care and superintendence of the [supervisor] of 
said town. 

" § 3. If any such meeting shall appropriate such money or funds for 
the benefit of common schools, after such appropriation shall have been 
made, and after the [supervisor] shall have taken the oath of ofiice, the 
overseers of the poor of such towns shall then pay over and deliver to 
the said [supervisor] such moneys, bonds, mortgages, notes and other 
securities remaining in their hands, as such overseers of the poor, as will 
comport with the appropriation made for the benefit of common schools 
of their town. 

" § 4. The said [supervisor] may sue for and collect, in their name 
of office, the money due or to become due on such bonds, mortgages, 
notes or other securities, and also all other securities by them taken 
under the provisions of this act. ' 

" § 5. The moneys, bonds, mortgages, notes and other securities 
aforesaid shall continue and be a permanent fand, to be denominated 
the common school fund of the town appropriating the same, the annual 
interest of which shall be applied to the support of common schools in 
such towns, unless the inhabitants of such town, in annual town meeting, 
shall make a different disposition of the whole of the principal and 
interest, or any part thereof, for the benefit of the common schools of 
such town. 

" § 6. The said [supervisor], whenever the whole or any part of the 
principal of said fund shall come to their hands, shall loan the same on 
bond, secured by a mortgage on real estate of double the value of the 
moneys so loaned, exclusive of buildings or artificial erections thereon. 

" § 7. The said [supervisor] may purchase in the estate on which the 
fund shall have been secured, upon the foreclosure of any mortgage, and 
may hold and convey the same for the use of said fund. 

rCoDE.] 20 



154 OF THE ELECTION OF 

"§ 8. The said [supervisor] shall retain the interest of said common 
school fund, which shall be distributed and applied to the support of 
common schools of such town, in like manner as the public money for 
the support of common schools shall be distributed by law. 

"§ 9. The said [supervisor] shall account annually, in such manner 
and at such times as town .officers are required by law to account, and 
shall deliver to their successors in office, all moneys, books, securities 
and papers whatsoever relating to said fund, and shall take a receipt 
therefor, and file the same with the town clerk." 

No. 56. All the powers and duties imposed upon town 
superintendents, by sections sevent3^-two, seventy-three, 
seventy-seven, eighty and one hundred and thirteen of chapter 
four hundred and eighty, Laws of one thousand eight hundred 
and forty-seven, are hereby imposed upon the supervisors of 
the towns. (Sec. 26, chap. 179 of 1856.) 

Each of the sections above referred to will be found in its proper 
connections modified in conformity to No. 56. 

OF THE ELECTION OF SCHOOL COMMISSIONERS. 

No. 57. The boards of supervisors of the several counties 
in this state, composing each one assembly district, and also 
the boards of supervisors of each of the counties of Fulton 
and Hamilton, shall assemble at their usual place of meeting 
on the 3d day of June next, at noon, and elect for their 
county an officer to be called school commissioner. Such 
officer shall be elected by ballot, and shall hold his office from 
the day of his election until the 1st day of January, 1858. 
( Sec. 1, chap. 179, passed April 12, 1856. ) 

No. 58. The boards of supervisors of the several counties 
in this state having more than one assembly district, except 
the counties of New- York and Kings, shall meet on the 3d 
day of June next, at noon, and elect by ballot an officer to be 
called school commissioner, for each assembly district in their 
respective counties, who shall hold his office until the 1st day 
of January, 1858. {Sec. 2, chap. 179 o/1856.) 

No. 59. The supervisors of the towns of Flatbush, Flatland, 
Gravesend, Newlots and New Utrecht, in the county of 
Kings, shall, on the 3d day of June next, meet at the usual 
place of meeting of the board of supervisors of said county, 



SCHOOL COMMISSIONERS. 155 

and elect by ballot a school commissioner for that portion of 
said county not included within the city of Brooklyn, who 
shall hold his office from the day of election until the 1st day 
of January, 1858, and until a successor shall have been 
elected by the inhabitants of the said towns in the manner 
hereinafter provided. ( Sec. 3, chap. 179 of 1856. ) 

No. 60. In the several counties composing each but one 
assembly district, the respective boards of supervisors shall 
have power and are hereby authorized, in their discretion, to 
choose two school commissioners whenever the number of 
school districts in the county shall exceed 140, counting two 
parts of districts, joint with other counties, one district. In 
case two commissioners shall be chosen as aforesaid, then the 
board of supervisors shall immediately proceed to divide the 
county into two districts or sections, having reference in such 
division, as nearly as may be, to equalize the territory and 
number of schools and pupils under the supervision of each 
commissioner, and also having reference to the density of 
population and the facilities for traveling. They shall make a 
description of the divisions established by them, and assign 
the charge of one of them to each of the commissioners then 
chosen. But no town shall be divided in the formation of 
any such district. Such description shall be filed in the office 
of the county clerk, and a copy thereof sent by him to the 
Superintendent of Public Instruction. {Sec. 4, chap. 179 
0/1856.) 

No. 61. In case any two persons shall have an equal num- 
ber of votes for the office of commissioner, at the election 
hereinbefore provided for, the clerk of the board may give a 
casting vote, but, except for that purpose, shall have no vote 
in the proceedings. {Sec. 5, chap. 179 of 1856.) 

No. 62. A certificate of the election of every commissioner 
shall forthwith be made by the clerk of the board of super- 
visors and filed in the office of the county clerk, and a dupli- 
cate thereof be sent by mail to the Superintendent of Public 
Instruction ; and the county clerk, upon the filing of such 
certificate, shall forthwith give notice, in writing, to the 
school commissioners of their election, who shall, within ten 
days after such notice, take and subscribe the constitutional 
oath of office, and shall give notice of their acceptance to the 
Superintendent of Public Instruction, and enter upon their 



156 OF THE ELECTION OF 

duties immediately. They shall hold their office until the 1st 
day of January, 1858, and until their successors shall have 
taken and filed with the county clerk the like oath of office. 
{Sec. Q, chap. 179 0/ 1856.) 

No. 63. At the annual general election held in the year 
1857, and every three years thereafter, there shall be elected 
on a separate ballot, to be endorsed " School Commissioner," 
in the several assembly districts, and in the sections of single 
assembly districts formed and designated as hereinbefore pro- 
vided, and in the towns of Kings county not included in the 
city of Brooklyn, a school commissioner for such district or 
section. All the provisions of law relating to the mode of 
voting and of canvassing the votes for county officers shall 
apply to and govern the election of such commissioners. 
The persons so elected shall enter into office on the 1st day 
of January, 1858, and shall hold office for three years, and 
until their successors shall have qualified according to law. 
Each of such commissioners, in counties where more than one 
is elected, shall take charge of that one of the assembly dis- 
tricts, or that one of the sections into which any county 
having but one assembly district may be divided, for which 
he shall have been elected ; but may, upon the written 
request of the commissioner in charge of any other section 
of the same county, perform any duties therein which he might 
discharge in the section of his own residence. (Sec. 7, chajp. 
179 0/1856.) 

The jurisdiction of the school commissioner is strictly limited to the 
district for which he is elected. But the commissioner may at times be 
necessarily absent, or he may from sickness or injury be unable to per- 
form his duties, or he may be incapacitated by some legal disabihty. 
In such cases his written request will call to his aid another commis- 
sioner of the same county. 

But whenever a commissioner is so called upon to exercise any 
powers or perform any duties out of his own jurisdiction, and the acts 
are of an important and permanent character, such as' ought to be 
recorded or be put in writing, as for instance certificates, or alterations 
of districts, he should in every written instrument recite the written 
request, under which he is acting, substantially or in full. It would also 
be advisable to file such written request in the ofiice of the county clerk, 



SCHOOL COMMISSIONERS. 157 

for safe keeping and future reference, in case any question should arise 
as to the validity of his acts. 

No. 64. Every commissioner shall have power, and it shall 
be his duty : 

1. To visit and examine all the schools and school districts 
committed to his charge, as often in each year as shall be 
practicable ; to inquire into all matters relating to the man- 
agement, the course and mode of instruction, the books, 
studies and discipline of such schools, the condition of the 
school-houses, out-buildings and appendages, and of the dis- 
tricts generally ; to advise and counsel with the trustees and 
other officers of school districts in relation to their duties, 
and particularly in relation to the construction, ventilation 
and warming of school-houses, and the improving and adorn- 
ing of the school grounds connected therewith, and to recom- 
mend to such trustees and to the teachers employed by them 
the proper studies, discipline and management of the schools, 
the course of instruction to be pursued, and to examine into 
the condition of the district libraries. No commissioner shall 
act as agent for any author, publisher or bookseller, or shall 
directly or indirectly receive any gift, emolument or reward 
for his influence in recommending the use of any book or 
school apparatus or furniture of any kind whatever. Any 
act herein prohibited shall be deemed a violation of his official 
oath, and any offer or solicitation to such an act shall be con- 
sidered an attempt to bribe and corrupt a public officer ; 

2. To examine persons offering themselves as candidates for 
teachers of public schools, in order to determine and to decide 
upon their capacity, and to grant them certificates of qualifi- 
cation, in such forms as shall be prescribed by the Superinten- 
dent of Public Instruction, which certificates, according to 
the terms thereof, shall be evidence of the qualifications of 
such teachers in the district of the county to which such com- 
missioner shall be elected, or to which he shall be assigned in 
accordance with the provisions of this act ; 

3. To annul any certificate granted to any teacher by him 
or by his predecessor, or by any town or county superinten- 
dent, whenever such teacher shall be found deficient, and to 
examine, upon reasonable notice and opportunity of defense 
to the teacher, into all charges affecting the moral character 
of the teacher, which may be presented as a cause for annul- 
ling a certificate, by whomsoever such certificate may have 



158 DUTIES OF 

been granted, and he shall report every instance of such 
examination, the evidence which may be presented in the case, 
to the Superintendent of Public Instruction, immediately after 
the conclusion of such examination ; 

4. To organize and conduct at least once in each year, in 
his own district or in concert with the commissioner or com 
missioners of one or more adjoining districts in the same 
county, a teachers' institute, and to induce, if possible, all the 
common school teachers in his district to be present and take 
part in the exercises of such institute ; and to perform the 
duties imposed by chapter three hundred and sixty-one. Laws 
of one thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, upon town 
superintendents, and to give the notice therein required to be 
given by the county clerk ; 

5- And generally by all means in his power to promote 
sound education, elevate the character and qualifications of 
teachers, improve the means of instruction, and advance the 
interests of the schools committed to his charge. ( Sec. 8, 
chay. 179 0/1856.) 

For greater convenience and a clearer understanding of the subject, 
the several subdivisions of this section Avill be commented upon sepa- 
rately : 

1. To visit and examine all the schools and school districts committed 
to his charge, as often in each year as shall be practicable ; to inquire 
into all matters relating to the management, the course and mode of 
instruction, the books, studies and discipline of such schools, the condi- 
tion of the school-houses, out-buildings and appendages, and of the dis- 
tricts generally ; to advise and counsel with the trustees and other 
officers of school districts in relation to their duties, and particularly in 
relation to the construction, ventilation and warming of school-houses, 
and the improving and adorning of the school grounds connected there- 
with, and to recommend to such trustees and to the teachers employed 
by them the proper studies, discipline and management of the schools, 
the course of instruction to be pursued, and to examine into the condi- 
tion of the disti-ict libraries. No commissioner shall act as agent for 
any author, publisher or bookseller, or shall directly or indirectly receive 
any gift, emolument or reward for his influence in recommending the 
use of any book or school apparatus or furniture of any kind whatever. 
Any act herein prohibited shall be deemed a violation of his official 
oath, and any offer or solicitation to such an act shall be considered an 
attempt to bribe and corrupt a public officer. 

The duties comprised in this subdivision may be stated under two 
heads : 

I. Visiting and inspecting the schools. 



SCHOOL COMMISSIONERS. 169 

11. Advising and counseling with the trustees and other school 
officers and with teachers. 

I. The number of commissioners in the state, excluding the cities, is 
one hundred and thirteen. Each commissioner is required to visit all 
the schools in his district each year, as often as is practicable. The 
number of districts to be visited by any commissioner will, in a few 
cases, reach one hundred and fifty ; perhaps, in most cases, will be less, 
and in some a little more, than one hundred. Allowing half a day to a 
visit, it will be found practicable to visit each school and school district 
in the state not less than three times a year. It would be found useful, 
where practicable, to assemble together two or three schools, and devote 
a whole day to their examination. A comparison of schools would 
excite emulation, and improve both scholars and teachers. 

Having acquired a complete and familiar knowledge of the geography 
of his district, the commissioner should arrange a plan for visitation, as 
a judge does the terms of his courts, for a year or two years. It would 
be well to print his programme, and distribute it in every town and 
district, so that trustees and pupils and people may be prepared for his 
visits. The publishers of newspapers would be found ready to insert the 
programme of visitation in their papers, as an item of news highly 
important to their subscribers and readers. 

In addition to this general notice, the commissioner should give a 
particular notice to the trustees and teacher of every school, of the day 
when he will be present and examine the school. He should invite the 
trustees to inform the parents of pupils of his visit, and urge them 
to attend. 

Examination of the School : Preparatory to this, the commissioner 
should ascertain from the teacher the number of classes, the studies 
pursued by each, the routine of the school, the successive exercises of 
each class during each hour of the day, the play spells allowed, &c., 
and thus obtain a general knowledge of the school, which will be found 
greatly to facilitate his subsequent duties. Every commissioner is 
enjoined to call for and examine the list of scholars in the book which 
the statute requires the teacher to keep, in order that he may see 
whether the names are correctly and neatly entered. He will also 
examine the da]/ roll and the weekly roll, which by the preceding regu- 
lations teachers are directed to preserve, and will ascertain, by the pro- 
per inquiries, whether they are exact in entering all who are present. 



160 DUTIES OF 

The commissioner will then hear each class recite the ordinary les- 
son of the day. It will then be examined on the subjects of study. 
Generally it will be better to allow the teacher to conduct the exercises 
and examinations, as the pupils will be less likely to be intimidated, 
and an opportunity will be given of judging of the qualifications of the 
instructors. 

To enable him to compare the school with itself at another time, and 
with other schools, and to comply with the regulations hereinafter 
contained respecting the annual reports, the commissioner should 
keep notes of his observations, and of the information he obtains on all 
the subjects on which he is required to report ; and he should particu- 
larly note any peculiarities which seem to require notice in the mode 
of instruction, in the government and discipline of the school, and the 
appearance of the pupils in respect to their cleanliness of person and 
neatness of apparel. 

II, Advising and consulting with other officers of the district. 

This duty is especially enjoined by the act upon commissioners. The 
law, in the broadest terms, requires them to advise and counsel the trus- 
tees and other school officers in relation to all their duties. 

The performance of this duty will demand great care and circum- 
spection. It should be constantly borne in mind that the office of an 
adviser and counselor is to ascertain facts and learn the true condition 
of things, and then to suggest and propose improvements and remedies. 
Interrogatories, judiciously aimed at abuses, errors, mistakes and omissions, 
will call attention to them as clearly as if they were condemned outright, 
Tsnd at the same time give no offence. 

The advice and counsel needed will generally come under the heads 
of proper studies ; the discipline and conduct of the school ; the course 
of instruction ; the elementary books ; the erection of school-houses ; 
and the ability of the district to maintain a school. 

1. The proper studies: The proper studies vary with the age and 
advancement of the scholars. The great object of the common schools 
is, unquestionably, to instruct the youth of the state in the ordinary 
branches of a good English education. To spell, to read and write, 
should be the first care. As soon as a child can write, spelling and 
writing should be one exercise. The meaning of the words spelled 
should also be explained to the scholar, as a great assistance to the 
memory. Correct spelling and a clear comprehension of the words are 
essential to good reading. A distinct articulation of every syllable is 
the most important requisition. A correct, and not too forcible accent, 



SCHOOL COMMISSIONERS. 161 

an utterance neither too rapid nor too slow, and a clear understanding 
of the subject, are also important requirements. 

The commissioner will carefully note tne capabilities of the scholars, 
and their grade of improvement, and ad\ase that no studies be' imposed 
or permitted until the pupil can enter upon them understandingly. The 
hill of science must be climbed with patient assiduity, step by step. 
Some may be able to step faster than others ; but whoever attempts to 
overleap any of its acclivities, will be sure to fall back, and be compelled 
to start anew. 

2. The discipline and conduct of the school : The commissioners can- 
not too strongly inculcate the necessity of a punctual and continuous 
attendance during school hours for the whole term. Teachers should 
be advised to insist upon this. The first hour of a session, in the 
■ morning or afternoon, should not be interrupted by the noisy dropping 
in, everv few minutes, of truant and tardy children. The interruption 
is not the worst of the evil. The want of punctuality involves the loss 
of time that should be applied to study ; and the tardy and often absent 
soon lag behind their associates, become disheartened, relax their eflForts, 
and finally, in many cases, acquire a habit ot irregularity, insubordi- 
nation and negligence, which marks their character through life. 

Order and system should prevail in the whole conduct of the school. 
The routine of recitations and other exercises should be regular and 
seldom changed. The pupils should give a ready obedience to the 
commands of the teacher, and a strict compliance with rules and regu- 
lations should be exacted. Pupils should be instructed that these com- 
mands, rules and regulations are not imposed upon them as a restraint 
or humiliation, but for their good ; as the best means of expediting the 
sole business of the school, their acquisition of knowledge. 

The commissioners should also observe whether the teachers possess 
the respect of their scholars, and whether their deportment in and out 
of the school is such as to preserve it. They should particularly note 
how the authority of the teacher is maintained ; whether it is the result 
of a mild and conciliating, but firm and steady government, or whether 
it is an unwilling submission to the arbitrary rule of a high tenjpep and 
the fear of the rod. 

3, The course of instruction : The order of studies which long expe- 
rience has decided to be best, and which is generally folloAved, is, the 
alphabet, spelling, reading, arithmetic, geography, history and grammar. 
To learn the names of things is among the earliest efforts of the infant 

fCoDE.] 21 



162 DUTIES OF 

mind. It is the work of several years to master the simplest combi- 
nations of language. In teaching the elements of knowledge, therefore, 
great discretion and discriminaxion are necessary in graduating instruc- 
tion to the capacity of pupils. Primary books should contain only 
familiar household words and the commonest forms of speech. When 
these have been mastered, others of a higher grade should be substi- 
tuted ; and the pupil should be all the time, insensibly but constantly, 
climbing an ascending grade. 

The four simple rules of arithmetic are easily taught, not by arbitrary 
rules and a few examples, but by continual practice and repetition, with 
blocks or balls, by which the numbers are represented to the eye. 
The little boy who sells newspapers, or peddles peanuts and apples, 
will learn in a few weeks all the combinations of simple numbers, less 
than one hundred, without having ever heard of Colburn or Emerson. 
Make a purchase of him, and hand him a quarter of a dollar, and he 
will make his computation and give you the change as promptly as the 
readiest bank teller. 

Geography, by means of maps, charts and globes, may be taught at a 
very early age. History requires a more advanced age. The study of 
history and geography may be combined. In the course of the reading 
lessons, and during the lesson in history, whenever a place is named the 
pupil should be required to point it out on the map. A daily newspaper 
may be of essential service in teaching geography and current history 
The use of a map, with a daily paper, will very soon make the pupils 
acquainted with all the principal commercial ports and political divisions 
of every part of the world. Geography and history, thus learned, would 
be indelibly impressed upon the memory. Biography, however, has a 
charm for the very young, and many brief narratives might be made a 
part of the school exercises. Grammar, treating of the structure and 
composition of language, is a difficult study, and should not be under- 
taken till the mind of the pupil has attained a maturity and strength 
capable of comparing, analyzing and combining phrases and sentences. 
To read, to speak and to write, correctly and elegantly, may all be 
learned without consulting a grammar. But a knowledge of English 
grammar is a very important part of a good common education, and its 
study a very useful exercise of the intellectual powers. 

4. Books of elementary instruction : Within the last few years a great 
improvement has been made in elementary books. A great many series 
of books, elucidating and illustrating every branch of education in our 
common schools, have been published. None of them are so defective 



SCHOOL COMMISSIONERS. 163 

as to require exclusion from the schools, and none of them are compara. 
lively so superior to others as to merit particular recommendation. Trus- 
tees should be advised not to permit every new teacher to introduce a new 
set of books. A teacher is very poorly qualified who cannot use one 
set of text books as well as another. The trustees should exercise their 
authority, in relation to text books, to prevent any unnecessary change, 
and to preserve an uniformity. Classes of the same grade should have 
the same books. 

Whenever the commissioner finds in any school a number of pupils 
of the same standing using difi'erent books, and classed separately, he 
should point out the evil, by showing how, if all had the same books, 
one class and one recitation would suffice for all, and the teacher's cor- 
rections and observations, repeated to several classes, might be limited 
to one, and much valuable time of pupils and teacher be saved. 

Where the evil of a variety of text books prevails, it might not be 
advisable to compel uniformity by an immediate change of books. 
The trustees could however decide upon the text books to be used, and 
require every scholar who should afterwards have occasion to purchase a 
new book to conform to their decision. 

A serious charge against county superintendents was, that they acted 
as book agents ; how many, if any, were liable to such a charge cannot 
be determined. The present law relieves thena not only from numerous 
importunities, but from the imputation of recommending text books on 
account of self-interest. It is very desirable that the books used in thQ 
same school should be uniform ; but it is not desirable, among the first 
and prominent acts of the commissioners, to make a general change 
of text books. The reforms in the schook depend more upon the teacher 
than upon the influence of any series of books. 

In ities and large villages, the adoption o-f imiform text books is a 
pecuniary advantage to the people, particularly to the transient popula- 
tion that frequently move from o-ne district to another, and are generally 
least able to purchase new books. But the positive necessity of 
uniformity is not so apparent in adjacent rural districts. The inhabi- 
tants there do not often change their residence. It is not best to be 
indifferent as to the merit of text books, but to exercise prudence in 
recommending them. It is desirable that the people should understand 
that while the interests of their children command the first attention, 
the subject of expenses has also a fair consideration. Their confidence 
and cooperation will thus be secured. 



164 DUTIES OF 

5. School-houses and grounds : It is highly important that an earnest 
appeal be made to the trustees and inhabitants of the several school 
districts to give attention to the condition and improvement of school- 
houses and grounds. It is not possible to have schools high-toned and 
in healthy spirit, where inattention to comfort and beauty exists. If any 
• element of character unfavorable to order and progress is called into 
morbid activity, it may often be traced to this source. 

Health of body and vigor of mind should be carefully regarded. 
There should never be too long confinement in school rooms. Pure 
air is absolutely indispensable. It has been suggested, by distinguished 
writers on education, that six hours of daily confinement will impair the 
health of the great majority of pupils; that with the very best ventila- 
tion, no school room containing a score or more of children can be as 
healthy as the open air ; hence, that no pupil should be kept in school 
for a longer time than is necessary to fix his attention upon his lessons. 
. Growth and development of body are indispensable to the future well- 
being of the child and to realize the ideal of a well constituted man or 
woman. To this end the enjoyment of pure, fresh air, unconstrained 
attitudes of body, ample exercise and exhilarating play, are absolutely 
necessary ; and the school-house, its location and grounds, should supply 
these wants. The mind of every child craves, receives and assimilates 
knowledge. We should so adapt our educational facilities that the 
desire for intellectual acquirement shall remain through life unimpaired. 
But very many children are so stupefied by the noxious air which they 
are compelled to breathe six hours every day, their vital appparatus so 
wearied, that they acquire an abhorrence of school and a disgust for 
study which are never eradicated. It is in the nature of things that any 
exertion, connected with physical suflFering or oppressive sense of con- 
straint, induces repugnance. Hence, in spite of the efforts employed to 
impress such children with an earnest conviction of the importance of a 
good education, they regard the school room as a prison, the vacations 
as seasons of delight, and adult age as the era of emancipation from an 
arduous bondage. 

It is the vocation of the commissioners to discover and suggest a 
correction for these evils. When they visit school-houses, they should 
notice whether they are properly located. Many are situated on the 
line of the highway. They should be removed from it sufliciently far 
to escape the noise, dust and other inconveniences. If they are old, and 
a few boards and shingles and a little paint will improve their external 
appearance, and make them internally more safe and comfortable, surely 



SCHOOL COMMISSIONERS. 165 

they should be applied. If the doors are broken or the seats and desks 
marred, they should be repaired and adapted to the physical comfort 
of the pupils ; if the grounds need grading, it should be done ; if pools 
of stagnant water are near, they should be drained and filled ; if the 
proper fencing is required, let the subject receive prompt attention. 
Trees should be planted, shrubs and flowers should be set. Let free 
application be made of broom, brush and lime, to renovate the internal 
economy of the school room. Willing hands enough can be found in 
every school district to make all the improvements suggested, provided 
attention is directed to their importance. Certainly it is the school- 
house, if any building, which ought to be constructed and preserved 
with care and surrounded with pleasant scenery. Few parents would 
reside in a dwelling constructed with as little regard to beauty and 
comfort as are many of our school-houses. They should care as well for 
the place where their children congregate for instruction. They should 
be impressed with the conviction, that there the associations of nature 
and art should be attractive, to secure on the part of scholars a love for 
their school ; that associations with order and beauty give birth, in the 
minds of the young, to pure and holy emotions, whose happy influence 
will establish them in purity of desire and thought. 

The attention of trustees should be called to this subject ; and, if 
possible, they should be induced to appoint a suitable day for making 
necessary improvements and embellishments. Let the matrons and 
maids assist. Let the children participate in the work; they should 
share the pleasure and receive the lesson it would teach. 

2. To examine persons ofi'ering themselves as candidates for teachers of 
public schools, in order to determine and to decide upon their capacity, 
and to grant them certificates of qualification, in such forms as shall be 
prescribed by the Superintendent of Public Instruction, which certificates, 
according to the terms thereof, shall be evidence of the qualifications of 
such teachers in the district of the county to which such commissioner 
shall be elected, or to which he shall be assigned in accordance with the 
provisions of this act. 

The commissioners, being the only persons in their several districts 
authorized to grant certificates, should be prepared to make examinations, 
whenever making their round of visitations. To aff"ord every reasonable 
accommodation to persons who may offer themselves, they should 
appoint some particular day and place, in each town, where they will 
be in readiness to examine teachers. It would also be well to give 
notice in the county papers in the spring and fall, just before the sum- 
mer and winter terms generally commence, of certain times and places 



166 DUTIES OF 

at which applications may be made to them for licenses. Such notices 
would probably bring together several applicants, and thereby lessen 
the labor and time required for examination. One or more hours of 
each day might be set apart for this purpose, at the time of holding a 
teachers' institute. 

The examination should be confined to ascertaining the qualifications 
of candidates, under three heads, viz : in respect, first, to moral charac- 
ter ; second, learning ; third, ability. 

First. The testimonials as to moral character should be full and 
explicit, and should be from persons long and intimately acquainted 
with the applicant. This is no unimportant matter ; and this department 
establishes it as a positive regulation, that no certificate is to be granted 
without entire satisfaction on this point. The training of youth must 
not be committed to persons of bad manners and questionable morals. 
Children will necessarily be more or less influenced by the example of 
their teachers, whose principles, therefore, should be such as to inspire 
confidence, and whose behavior worthy of imitation. 

The commissioner will be careful not to push his inquiries beyond 
the field of morals, and extend them into the debatable ground of opinion, 
religious or political. All he can ask is that the applicant shall hold a fair 
reputation, free from the reproach of crime, or any taint of immorality. 
He would be justified in rejecting a noisy zealot, with manners rude, 
obtrusive and ofi"ensive, indicating uncurbed passions and unsound prin- 
ciples of conduct, liable to render him obnoxious to the inhabitants and 
unfit for a teacher of youth. The use of intoxicating liquors would be 
a serious objection to the character of a teacher. Temperance and 
sobriety should be demanded of every applicant. The objection is to 
the drinking of spirituous liquors, and not to drunkenness only. Per- 
sons under the influence of intoxicating drinks seldom act calmly and 
deliberately, but are liable to outbreaks of passion, moments of petulance, 
seasons of unnatural excitement or depression, entirely unfitting them 
for the government of a school or the management of young people. 

The man who puts the inebriating cup to the lips of a child is 
instinctively execrated, and no voice is ever raised to justify the inhuman 
act. However besotted and degraded a man may be, he would be glad 
to have his children grow up pure, temperate and respected. In all 
nations, and all ages the corrupters of youth have been stigmatized as 
the worst enemies of society and of the state. A rale, therefore, which 
excludes from the oflSce of teacher the habitual drinker of intoxicating 



SCHOOL COMMISSIONERS. 16 7 

liquors, harmonizes with the better feelings of the inebriate himself, as 
well as with the general sense of mankind. 

Second. As to the learning of applicants. 

The improvement in text books, the use of charts and philosophical 
apparatus, and the general diffusion of knowledge, has raised the stan- 
dard of qualification for teachers within the last ten years. Notwith- 
standing the faults and defects of our school system, there is abundant 
proof that it has produced fruit an hundred fold, and that our common 
schools, throughout the state, are now the best schools, and have almost 
entirely superseded private instruction. While, therefore, teachers must 
bear an examination on the same subjects as formerly, a much more 
minute, accurate and extensive knowledge of them is required. 

In spelling, reading and penmanship, they are expected to be profi- 
cients, and they should also be well versed : 

1st. In the definition of words ; 

2d. In arithmetic, mental and written ; 

3d. In geography ; 

4th. In the use of charts, globes and school apparatus. 

5th. In the principles of English grammar ; and, 

6th. In the history of the United States, England, and of Europe 
generally, and in universal history ; 

V. In the science of government, at least they should know the char- 
acter and operation of our own state and national governments. 

In a large majority of the schools, a limited acquaintance with the 
last three heads is admissible, if the applicant is familiar with the other 
branches. 

It may be advisable, also, if the power is exercised with due discretion, 
to grant certificates permitting the holder to teach a particular school, 
or to occupy the post of an assistant in departmental schools. The 
same extent and degree of knowledge is not needed to fill a subordinate 
place, and hear recitations in primary classes, as to take charge of a 
large school. Many summer schools may also be profitably intrusted 
to young girls, not qualified by age, education or experience to take 
charge of large schools. 

In some schools, especially in high and union free schools, the range 
of examination might include the higher branches of mathematics, 
physiology and mental philosophy. 

In all cases a familiarity with the current history of the present time, 
gathered from newspapers, should be required. 



1€8 DUTIES OF 

Third. Ability to teach. This implies something more than good 
character and mere learning. A faculty of imparting knowledge is 
essential to success as a teacher. The management of a school requires 
a certain tact in dealing with children ; a patience and good nature not 
possessed by every one, and by very few in the same degree. The com- 
missioners, by general inquiries and by pertinent questions to the appli- 
cant, on personal examination, may form a very fair judgment of his 
qualifications in these respects. Subsequently, their observations on 
visiting the schools will enable them to correct their judgment. Certifi- 
cates, in the first instance, should be granted for a term not exceeding 
a year. A second one should not be given to a person whose ill nature, 
or petulance, or want of tact, or incapacity to impart instruction, 
disqualifies him for the proper government of a school. 

Having satisfied themselves of the qualifications of the applicant, the 
commissioners will grant certificates, in the following forms : 

Certificate of the First Grade. 

To ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME : Be IT KNOWN, 

that I, , school commissioner for the district, in the 

County of , having examined A. B., and having ascertained 

his qualifications in respect to moral character, learning and ability to 
instruct a common school, do herebt certify that he is duly qualified* 
and that his experience in and devotion to the profession entitle him to 
the rank of a teacher of the first grade, and he is accordingly hereby 
LICENSED to teach any common school in this district for three years 
from this date. 

Given under my hand, this day of , in the year one 

thousand eight hundred and 

C. D. 

Certificate of the Second Grade. 

To ALL to WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME : Be IT KNOWN, 

that I, , school commissioner for the district, in the 

county of , having examined , and having ascer- 

tained his qualifications in respect to moral character, learning and 
ability to instruct a common school, do hereby certify that he is 
qualified and entitled to the rank of a teacher of the second grade, and 
he is accordingly licensed to teach common schools in any town in 
this district for the term of one year from this date. 



SCHOOL COMMISSIONERS. 169 

Given under my hand, this day of , in the year one 

Miousand eight hundred and 

C. D. 

Third Grade — Limited Forms. 

To ALL TO "WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME : Be IT KNOWN, 

that I, , school commissioner for the district, in the 

county of , having examined A. B., and having ascertained 

his qualifications in respect to moral character, learning and ability to 
instruct a common school, do hereby certify that he is entitled to the 
rank of a teacher of the third grade, and is qualified to teach the school 
in District No. , in the town of , in this district, and 

not elsewhere, and he is accordingly hereby licensed to teach the said 
school for the term of one year from this date. 

Given under my hand, &c. C. D. 

Another. 

To ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME : Be IT KNOWN, 

that I, , school commissioner for the district, in the 

county of , having examined , and having ascertained 

qualifications in respect to moral character, learning and ability 
to instruct a common school, do hereby certify that he is entitled to 
the rank of a teacher of the third grade, and is qualified for the place 
of first (or second) assistant in the school in the district, in the 

town of , and is accordingly hereby licensed to teach in 

said school in that capacity for one year from this date. 

Given under, &c. C. D. 

Another. 

To ALL to whom these PRESENTS SHALL COME I Be IT KNOWN, 

that I, , school commissioner for the district, in the 

county of , having examined A. B., and having ascertained 

his qualifications in respect to moral character, learning and ability to 
instruct a common school, do hereby certify that he is entitled to the 
rank of a teacher of the third grade, and is qualified to be a teacher in 
the primary department in the public schools in this district (or city), 
and he is accordingly hereby licensed to teach in that capacity for one 
year from this date. 

Given, &c. C. D. 

[Code.] 22 



170 DUTIES OF 

Certificates of tlie fiest grade are intended for tliose who have had expe- 
rience in their profession, who are endowed by nature with a peculiar tact 
or who have acquired a superior skill, in the management of youth and 
the government of schools, and should be granted to those only who 
can bear an examination in the whole range of studies taught in com- 
mon schools. Every qualification heretofore and hereafter indicated as 
necessary or valuable in a teacher should be possessed by the applicant. 

Candidates for the second grade should be familiar with the rules of 
elocution and pronunciation, and be able to read with ease, intelligence 
and expression ; they should write a bold, plain hand, and be able to teach 
some good system of writing ; they should be fully versed in mental 
and commercial arithmetic, and well fitted to teach fractions, and the 
involution and evolution of roots ; they should be able to teach book- 
keeping by single entry ; they should know the common rules of 
orthography, and be able to parse any sentence in prose or poetry 
submitted to them, and to write grammatically, with correct spelling 
and punctuation, the substance of any passage which may be read to 
them ; and be entirely familiar with the elements of physical, civil and 
political geography, as contained in any common school geography. 

In short, the second grade certificates are intended for those who, with 
less experience and a more limi-ted acquaintance with some of the higher 
branches, have, nevertheless, proved themselves able to impart to others 
what they have themselves acquired, and who have attained the skill 
necessary to govern a school, but who, on account of their youth or 
their want of opportunity, are fully prepared to teach only the ordinary 
studies considered essential in the common schools. 

Candidates for the third grade certificates should be required to spell 
correctly the words of any ordinary sentence dictated by the commis- 
sioner ; to read distinctly and intelligently any passage from any 
ordinary reading book ; to work readily questions in common arithmetic • 
to understand the elements of English grammar, and to parse any easy 
sentence in prose ; to have a knowledge of the elements of geography, 
and the general outlines of the globe ; to write a plain, open hand, and 
to exhibit good taste in the arrangement of words and paragraphs; to 
write letters intelligibly and grammatically, and to fold and superscribe 
them properly ; and to know so much of morals and discipline as to 
appreciate the importance of self-government. 

The third grade certificates are intended for temporary licenses, to be 
granted to novitiates and persons who for lack of experience or 



SCHOOL COMMISSIONERS. 171 

ability have need to acquire the knowledge and skill necessary for 
higher positions. 

But the best set of rules and regulations respecting the examination of 
candidates must, after all, be regarded only as a partial help to the 
commissioner. The wisdom and justice of his conclusions will depend 
mainly upon his own judgment. Wliatever gift, or acquirement, or 
habit of thought and action may constitute his ideal of the true teacher, 
the applicants will nearly all come short of it. He can only look hope- 
fully for an approximation, and grant his certificates to those who 
approach nearest to his ideal. 

In pursuance of the discretion vested in the State Superintendent of 
Public Instruction, it is established as a regulation that no certificate 
shall be granted by any commissioner for a longer period than three years. 

3. To annul any certificate granted to any teacher by him, or by his 
predecessor, or by any town or county superintendent, whenever such 
teacher shall be found deficient, and to examine, upon reasonable notice 
and opportunity of defence to the teacher, into all charges affecting the 
moral character of the teacher which may be presented as a cause for 
annulling a certificate, by whomsoever such certificate may have been 
granted, and he shall report every instance of such examination, the 
evidence which may be presented in the case to the Superintendent of 
Public Instruction, immediately after the conclusion of such examination. 

By virtue of the 11th section of chap. 382 of 1849, which is unre- 
pealed, a diploma from the State Normal School entitles its possessor 
to be deemed a qualified teacher anywhere in the state, and a certificate 
from a former county superintendent has the same effect within the 
county where it was granted. 

The grounds for annulling a certificate are two: 1st. Deficiency in 
learning, and ability to teach ; and, 2d. Immoral character. 

1. On the first point the commissioner can satisfy himself by personal 
examination, or by observations made in school, or by proof of cruel 
conduct, and exhibitions of bad temper, and ungoverned passions. If 
the deficiency is within the commissioner's own knowledge, he should 
immediately reexamine the teacher, if it relates to learning ; and if to 
bad temper or bad morals, he should institute an examination, giving 
the teacher proper notice, and unless he satisfactorily explain his 
conduct, or exculpate his character, his certificate may be annulled ; 
but if complaint of deficiency be made by others to the com- 
missioner, he should give the teacher notice of some day and place at 
which he will examine him, and hear proof on behalf of both com- 
plainants and teacher. 



1Y2 DUTIES OF 

When complaint is made of deficiency in mofal ctaracter, fiill 
opportunity should be given the teacher for defence. He should be 
made acquainted with the precise charges affecting his character, and 
ample time allowed to prepare proofs and bring witnesses to explain or 
disprove them. 

The refusal of any person to submit to an examination to ascertain 
his qualifications as to learning and ability, or a failure to appear and 
answer charges touching his moral character, after due notice of the 
time and place for a hearing, would be an admission of incompetency 
or immorality, as the case might be, sufficient to justify the annulling 
of his certificate. 

The mode of procedure is not prescribed by the statute in express 
terms. It will therefore be safer to consider § 37 of chap. 480, Laws of 
1847, as still in force, and as controlling the manner in which the 
school commissioner is to exercise this power. 

The section is as follows : 

"§ 37. The town superintendent may annul any such certificate given 
by him, or his predecessors in office, when he shall think proper, 
giving at least ten days' previous notice, in writing, to the teacher hold- 
ing it, and to the trustees of the district in which he may be employed, 
of his intention to annul the same." 

In 10th Barbour's Reports, 296, it was held by the supreme court 
that ten days' notice, and an order at the expiration of that time, were 
necessary to annul the certificate of a teacher. In that case, the super- 
intendent examined a teacher on the last day of January, and, as he 
testified, decided him to be incompetent to teach, on account of his 
education being in some respects insufficient, and annulled his certificate. 
On the 2d of February he gave notice to the teacher that he 
intended to annul his certificate, and filed a similar notice with the town 
clerk, " to take effect February 12th." The court say that the order 
annulling the certificate must be in writing, and, commenting on the 
evidence of the superintendent, remark : " he doubtless formed the 
mental conclusion that he would annul the certificate, and gave notice 
to that effect. This was not a compliance with the provisions of the 
law. A notice of an intention to do an act is not an actual performance. 
The object of the statute in requiring notice was to fulfil the great 
requirement of justice, that no man shall be condemned unheard. The 
parties were entitled to a day before the superintendent, of which they 
were to have ten days' notice. To the teacher it was a matter of deep 
concern that he should have an opportunity of resisting a sentence of 



SCHOOL COMMISSIONRS. 173 

degradation, affecting his character and his prospects of usefulness in life. 
It does not appear that the superintendent made any order at the expi- 
ration of the ten days mentioned in the notice. The contrary is con- 
clusively to be inferred from the fact that he left the state on the 7th 
of February, and did not* return until three weeks afterwards. It 
follows, therefore, that the certificate of the teacher was not legally 
annulled on the 3d of February, nor indeed on any day in that 
month." 

. It is undoubtedly the right of the commissioner to examine a teacher 
in respect to his literary qualifications, and to satisfy himself, by 
inspection of his method of conducting school exercises, as to his 
intellectual and moral capacity to teach, without previous notice. A very 
unfavorable impression might often be formed, and that justly, which 
the teacher could remove by showing facts not apparent upon the 

examination. 

The notice may be in the following form, and should be served per- 
sonally upon the teacher and upon one or more of the trustees in whose 
employment he may be. 

Take notice, that it is my intention to annul the certificate of R. S.. 
a teacher employed in District No. , of the town of 

for want of sufficient literary qualifications (or ability to teach, or what- 
ever the cause may be), unless cause to the contrary shall be shown on 
or before the day of 

A. B., 

School Commissioner. 

At the expiration of the notice, if the commissioner determine to 
annul the certificate, he should make an order, substantially as follows : 

Notice having been given by me in writing, at least ten days pre- 
vious to the day of , to R. S., a teacher employed in 
District No. , in the town of , and also to the trustees of 
such district, of my intention to annul the certificate of such teacher for 
want of sufficient literary qualification (or ability to teach, or as the 
case may be), unless cause to the contrary were shown on or before 
the day aforesaid, and no cause having been shown (or if the parties 
have appeared to show cause, after hearing the proofs and allegations of 
the said R. S. (or the trustees), and mature deliberation being thereupon 
had), it is hereby ordered that the certificate of qualification of the said 



174 DUTIES OF 

K. S. as a teacher of common schools be, for the cause aforesaid, and 
the same is hereby annulled. Dated this day of 

A. B., 

School Commissioner for^ &c. 

2. If charges affecting the moral character of the teacher be pre- 
sented, the notice should be : 

Take notice that the following charges, affecting the moral character 
of R. S., a teacher employed in District No. , of the town of , 

have been presented by James JacksOn, of the town of , as a 

cause for annulling the certificate of said teacher, viz : (Here recite the 
charges, in which the precise nature, time, place and circumstances of 
the offences imputed to the teacher should be stated) ; and that I shall 
proceed to examine into the charges aforesaid, and to hear the defence 
of the said teacher at o'clock of the day of , at , in 

the town of . 

C. O., 

School Cammissioner for , etc. 

It is believed that a commissioner ought not to subject a teacher to 
the notoriety of a public accusation, unless some person shall make 
complaint to him, and sustain it by his own oath or that of witnesses 
■whom he produces. He should ascertain that there is probable cause 
for proceeding in substantially the same manner as a justice of the 
peace, to whom application is made for a criminal warrant. He may, 
for this purpose, administer oaths, examine the complainant and his 
witnesses orally, and reduce their testimony to writing. 

The charges must be direct and positive of such offences as would 
justify the annulling of the certificate. They ought to be sufiiciently 
particular to apprise the teacher of what he is accused, and enable him 
to prepare for defence ; for example, if an immoral habit, as profane 
swearing, licentiousness, intemperance in the use of spirituous liquors, 
is charged, one or more instances of it should be specified. 

When the time for examination arrives, it is for the complainant first 
to adduce evidence in support of his charges. The accused is not 
bound to offer any testimony until something is proved against him by 
witnesses whom he has the opportunity to cross-examine. The pre- 
liminary complaint is only for the purpose of putting him upon trial ; 
but is not evidence upon the trial, unless for the purpose of discrediting 
the witnesses, by showing that they have testified differently as to the 
same transaction. 



SCHOOL COMMISSIONERS. 175 

As the commissioner is required to report the evidence to the State 
Superintendent, lie should take full minutes, as it is given, as nearly as 
possible in the language of the witnesses. It would he well, also, though 
not indispensable, that the testimony of each witness should be read over 
to and subscribed by him as soon as he has concluded. 

The statute contemplates a decision by the commissioner, the testi- 
mony being reported to the State Superintendent for review, only in 
case an appeal is brought from the decision. 

The commissioner should draw two copies of his instrument annulling 
a certificate, one of which he should keep, and the other serve upon the 
teacher. The trustees, also, should be notified of the fact immediately, 
in order to save the district from the loss of the public money conse- 
quent upon the employment of a teacher without a licence. 

The commissioners are instructed to report, once in three months^ 
to this department, the names of all teachers whose certificates have 
been annulled, with the cause of such proceeding. 

They should also keep a register of the names of all persons to whom 
they grant certificates of qualification, with the date of each certificate 
and the term and place for which it was given ; and also the names of 
all persons whose certificates are annulled by them, with the date, and 
the general reasons therefor. 

The proceedings of the commissioners, in respect to the granting and 
annulling of certificates, are subject to appeal to the State Superinten- 
dent, by any person feeling himself aggrieved. 

4. To organize and conduct at least once in each year, in his own 
district or in concert with the commissioner or commissioners of one or 
more adjoining districts in the same county, a teachers' institute, and 
to induce, if possible, all the common school teachers in his district to 
be present and take part in the exercises of such institute ; and to 
perform the duties imposed by chap. 361, Laws of 1847, upon town 
superintendents, and to give the notice therein required to be given by 
the county clerk. 

By this provision of law, all the duties imposed chap. 361, Laws 
of 1847, upon the county clerk and town superintendents, are charged 
upon the school commissioner. It is made his duty to organize and 
conduct an institute, at least once in each year, in his own district, or 
in concert with the other commissioners in the same county. Probably a 
single institute in each county will answer every desirable purpose. 



176 DUTIES OF 

An Act for the estahlishment of teachers' institutes. 

Passed November 13th, 1847, "three-fifths being present." 

The People of the State of New -York, represented in Senate amd 
Assembly, do enact as follows : 

§ 1. The treasurer shall pay, on the warrant of the comptroller, to 
the order of the several county treasurers of this state, the several sums 
of money hereinafter mentioned, not exceeding sixty dollars annually 
to any one county, from the income of the United States deposit 
fund, to be expended for the use and benefit of teachers' institutes, 
as hereinafter provided. 

§ 2. Whenever a majority of town superintendents of common 
• schools in any county in this state unite in a recommendation, and file 
with the county clerk thereof a certificate, signifying their desire that a 
teachers' institute should be organized in such county for the instruction 
and improvement of common school teachers for such county, it shall 
thereupon be the duty of such clerk forthwith to appoint three town 
superintendents of the county, and notify them of their appointment, 
to constitute an advisory committee, to make the necessary arrangements 
for organizing and managing such institute, and such clerk shall also 
immediately give such public notice in such manner as he may deem 
most proper to the teachers of common schools of the county, and to 
others who may desire to become such, specifying a time and place 
when and where the teachers may meet and form such institute. 

§ 3. Whenever any institute shall have been organized, as herein 
provided, it shall be the duty of said committee and they shall have 
power to secure two or more suitable persons to lecture before such 
institute upon subjects pertaining to common school teaching and disci- 
pline, and various educational subjects which may be deemed calculated 
to qualify common school teachers, and to elevate the profession of 
teaching, and to improve common schools ; and said committee shall 
keep an accurate account, in items, of the necessary expenses of such 
institute in procuring said lecturers, and otherwise, and shall verify 
said account by affidavit, and deliver the same to the county treasurer, 
to be audited by and filed with him when application shall be made to 
such treasurer, as hereinafter provided. 

§ 4. Whenever any county treasurer shall receive satisfactory evidence 
that not less than fifty, or in counties of under thirty thousand population, 
then not less than thirty teachers and individuals intending to become 
teachers of common schools within one year, shall have been in regular 
attendance on the instructions and lectures of the institute in the 
county, during at least ten working days, he shall audit and allow the 
account which shall be presented to him by the committee, as aforesaid, 
and shall pay over to said committee the amount so audited and allowed, 
not exceeding sixty dollars in any one year, to be disbursed by said 
committee in paying the expenses incurred by the institute, as aforesaid. 



SCHOOL COMMISSIONERS. iTT 

§ 5. Every sucli committee shall annually transmit to the State 
Superintendent of common schools a catalogue of the names of all 
persons who shall have attended such institute, with such other statis- 
tical information and within such time as may be prescribed by said 
State Superintendent. 

§ 6. This act shall take effect immediately. 

The commissioner, or commissioners where two or more unite, will 
give the requisite notice, and then proceed to organize and conduct an 
institute, exercising the same powers and performing the same duties 
as, heretofore, the advisory committee, under the same act. 

The commissioners will keep an accurate account, in items, of all the 
expenses attending the institute, verify the same by affidavit, and pre- 
sent it to the county treasurer. 

Form of Account and Affidavit. 
Expenses attending the formation and holding of a teachers' insti- 
tute, at , in the county of , beginning on the day of 
, 18 , and ending on the day of , 18 . 

Advertising notice (see voucher No. 1), $1 50 

Use of room (see voucher No. 2), 3 00 

Fires and attendance (see voucher No. 3), 10 00 

Paid Mr. for lectures and instruction (see voucher No. 4), 50 00 

Stationery (see voucher No. 5), , 5 00 



w- 



169 00 

State of New-York, 
County of 

John Doe, school commissioner for the district of said county, 
being duly sworn, says that the above account is correct, and that the 
several items therein charged comprise the expenses incurred by him in 
the formation and holding the teachers' institute in this county, at the 
time and place named, and that no part of said account has been paid 
or satisfied. 

JOHN DOE. 
Sworn before me, this ) 

day of ,18 .] 

Richard Roe, 

Gommir of Deeds. 

A list of all the teachers, and individuals intending to become teach- 
ers, attending the institute, must be kept by the commissioner and 
[Code.] 23 



178 DUTIES OF 

verified by his affidavit. Upon presenting this, and the account afore- 
said, to the county treasurer, he is bound to audit the account, and pay 
not exceeding sixty dollars, provided it appears that not less than fifty, 
or in counties of under 30,000 population, then not less than thirty 
persons, above described, have been in regular attendance upon the 
teachings and lectures of the institute during ten working days. 

In the location of the institute, reference should be had to the con- 
venience and pecuniary interests of the persons who are to attend it. 

The time of holding its terms should be fixed with a view not to 
interfere with the common schools, but at such season as will allow 
common school teachers the most leisure to attend the institute. 

The commissioner or commissioners should, before giving notice of 
the time and place, secure the services of two or more suitable persons 
to lecture before the institute, and help to conduct the exercises. The 
commissioner will have the general direction of the exercises, and may 
employ as many persons as may be necessary, to lecture, and to take 
charge of classes to be instructed in subjects pertaining to common 
schools, teaching and discipline. 

In pursuance of the fifth section of the act, the commissioners aie 
required to report to this department : 

1st. A catalogue of the names of all the persons who shall have 
attended such institute, their place of residence and post-oJ3ice address ; 

2d. The names of the ofiicers of the institute and the lecturers ; 

3d. A statement of the subjects upon which lectures have been deli- 
vered ; 

4th. A statement of the classes into which the institute was divided, 
the studies pursued and the text books used ; 

5th. The time the institute was organized, the length of such term 
held and the time and place fixed for holding future terms ; 

6th. A copy of the accounts rendered to the county treasurer ; 

7th. It is recommended that a committee be appointed to make a 
report upon the condition of the school and the general state of public 
instruction in the county, and that a copy of that report be transmitted 
to the State Superintendent ; 

8th. Any other information that the committee may deem interesting 
or useful, or calculated to promote the cause of common school educa- 
tion. 

This report should be transmitted to the State Superintendent on or 
before the first day of December in each year. 



SCHOOL COMMISSIONERS. 179 

The commissioner, in addition to the published notice required by 
law, should also address a circular to every teacher in his district, urging 
all to attend the institute. 

If the state, as there is very little reason to doubt, shall continue its 
annual appropriatimi, the institute will become a part of the common 
school system. Teachers cannot fail to derive much benefit from the 
lectures, the instructions and conversations of the institute. By com- 
paring the various modes of teaching and government ; by discussing all 
the topics of practical duty ; by a critical examination of different text 
books, and by aiding and counselling each other, much may be done to 
promote the success of the schools. Not the least among the advan- 
tages to be gained by these annual gatherings, are the mutual acquain- 
tances formed, the good feeling engendered, the encouragement afforded, 
and the reciprocal instruction imparted, which will serve to unite and 
to stimulate all to vigorous effort in the common cause. If the fifteen 
thousand teachers in this state will form themselves into town and county 
associations, and combine all their energies, and act unitedly and har- 
moniously, what project for the improvement of common schools, in 
whose excellence and usefulness are centered the hopes of the present 
and of future generations, could they not urge upon public attention, 
with a concentration of sentiment and a weight of influence which would 
command the respect and secure the cooperation of all good men. 

5. And generally, by all means in his power, to promote sound edu- 
cation, elevate the character and qualification of teachers, improve the 
means of instruction and advance the interests of the schools committed 
to his charge. 

The commissioners are not expected to limit their labors to a bare 
performance of the duties prescribed by law. They are, on the con- 
trary, expected to devote all their time to subjects connected with 
education. The preparation of lectures, correspondence with teachers 
and school ofiiceis, the getting up and management of institutes, the 
taking of evidence in appeal cases, the reconcilement of district contro- 
versies, the procurement of statistical information, the making out of the 
annual reports, all require diligent study during the intervals of active 
duty. 

No. 65. All the duties and requirements of law now 
imposed upon town superintendents, in reference to the for- 
mation, alteration, dissolution, consolidation, and annulling of 
school districts, the building of school-houses, the selection and 
change of sites, and in relation to ihe- sale of school district 



180 DUTIES OF 

property, and the disposal and apportionment of the moneys 
arising therefrom, are hereby imposed upon the school 
commissioner, in respect to the several towns within his 
jurisdiction ; and he shall pay over the said moneys to the 
supervisors, to be by them paid to the districts or parts of 
districts which may be entitled to receive the same. ( Sec. 25, 
chap. 179 of 1856.) 

No. 66. Any commissioner may, at any time, resign his 
office to the clerk of the county in which he was elected j 
and in case of vacancy from such cause, or by death, removal 
from office or from the county, or refusal to accept, the 
county clerk shall give immediate notice to the county judge 
of such county, who shall appoint a successor to fill such 
vacancy till the next following general election, when a 
successor shall be chosen bv the electors, as hereinbefore 
provided. {Sec. 9, chap. 179 of 1856.) 

It is thought that the person appointed to fill a vacancy can only hold 
the office until such time as the ofiicer chosen by the people to fill the 
vacancy shall have taken the oath of office. 

Persons elected at the general elections would be subject to the fol- 
lowing provision : 

§ 3. All officers elected by the people, unless they shall be elected to 
supply vacancies then existing, shall enter upon the duties of their 
respective offices on the first day of January following the election 
at which they shall be chosen. (li. S., 3d ed., part 1, chap. 5, art. 1, 
§ 3 ; see also Const., art. 10, § 6.) 

No. 67. The commissioners shall be subject to such rules 
and regulations as the Superintendent of Public Instruction 
shall from time to time prescribe, and appeals from their acts 
and decisions may be made to him in the same manner and 
with like effect as in cases now provided by law. They shall 
make reports annually to the Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion, at such times as shall be appointed by him, containing 
such information as he shall require ; and for that purpose 
the annual reports of the trustees of school districts shall be 
made to them, and be deposited with the town clerks of the 
town in which the school-house of each district is situated, 
from whom the said commissioners shall obtain the same. 
Henceforth the trustees of joint districts, composed of terri- 
tory lying in two or more towns in the same county, shall be 
required to make but one annual report, in such form as the 



SCHOOL COMMISSIONERS. 181 

State Superintendent of Public Instruction shall prescribe. 
The reports of the trustees, after the commissioner shall have 
made his abstract therefrom, shall be properly arranged, filed, 
and, together with a copy of his own annual report, shall be 
deposited in the office of the county clerk for safe keeping. 
The county clerks shall not be required to make returns or 
abstracts of such reports. ( Sec. 10, chay. 179 of 1856. ) 

The annual reports of the trustees of school districts are required to 
be made between the 1st and 15th days of January in each year, and 
filed with the town clerks. The commissioner should call for them 
promptly ; and if. any districts are delinquent, should at once proceed 
to ascertain the cause. It should be his care, if possible, to cause a 
report to be made by every district in his jurisdiction, and he should aid 
trustees who may need his counsel and advice. 

The reports of the commissioners are required to be made at such 
times and to contain such statistical information as the State Superin- 
tendent shall prescribe. Blank forms will be annually prepared and 
distributed to the commissioners, and circulars will be addressed to 
them, with instructions as to the information required and the time 
when the reports must be completed, and deposited in the mail or sent 
by express to this department. 

It must be borne in mind that the State Superintendent is directed 
to send in his annual report to the legislature, dated December 31st of 
each year. The reports of commissioners must, therefore, be prepared 
two or three months previous to this time ; negligence on the part of 
one, two or three commissioners will necessarily cause serious delay and 
embarrassment to the department, as the superintendent cannot com" 
ment upon results until all the details are received. 

No, 68. Every commissioner shall have power to take 
affidavits and administer oaths in all matters pertaining to 
common schools, but without charge or fee ; and, under the 
direction of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, may 
hear and report to him testimony in all cases of appeals. 
{Sec. 11, chaf. 179 0/1856.) 

It was not the design of this section to supercede the present mode 
established • by regulation of presenting testimony \ipon appeals in the 
form of written affidavits, but to enable the superintendent to obtain 
additional light, where the written evidence is conflicting, ambiguous or 



182 DUTIES OF 

otherwise unsatisfactory, by the oral examination of witnesses before a 
commissioner. Where the superintendent conceives this necessary or 
desirable, an order will be made in the case, referring it to the proper 
commissioner to hear and report all testimony which may be produced 
before him by the respective parties to the appeal, or the testimony of 
particular witnesses named in the order, or testimony in relation to 
particular issues specified. The range of inquiry will be limited by the 
terms of the order. 

Upon receiving the order, the commissioner will give notice to both 
parties of the time and place at which he will hear the evidence to be 
produced by them respectively, if the reference is general, or of the 
witness named, or in relation to particular issues or subjects of inquiry, 
if the reference is limited in either respect. At the time and place 
appointed the commissioner will administer an oath to the witnesses in 
the following form : 

You swear (or declare and aflSrm) that the evidence you shall give 
upon this hearing, under the order . of the Superintendent of Public 
Instruction, on the appeal of (reciting the title of the 

proceeding as the same is given in the entitling of the order), shall be 
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God. 

The evidence of each witness on his direct examination should be 
reduced to writing, read over to the witness, any additions or corrections 
he desires to make stated (without erasing anything that has been 
written), and then subscribed by the witness and certified by the 
commissioner, before the witness is cross-examined. The cross-examina- 
tion is to be taken, corrected, subscribed and certified in the same 
manner. 

At the conclusion of the examination the commissioner should endorse 
or under-write upon the original order " The execution of this order 
appears by the depositions hereto annexed. A. B., Commissioner." He 
should then append to the order and return therewith to the superin- 
tendent the depositions in the following form : 

[Title of the case as in the order.] \ ^depositions taken on the 

'day of , at , undei 

an order of the Superintendent 
of Public Instruction, dated , 
before A. B., school commis- 
Isioner for the Assembly 

District of , county. 



SCHOOL COMMISSIONERS. 183 

(7. 7)., a witness produced, was duly sworn by said commissioner, and 
on being orally examined by for tbe appellant (or respon- 

dent), deposeth as follows : I reside in tbe town of ; I was 

present at a meeting beld in District No. , on tbe 10th day of 

May, 1856, &c., &c. 

On hearing the above read, the witness further deposeth : I want to be 
understood that I was not present at the meeting (give the witness' 
additions and corrections to his testimony as reported). 

(signed) C. D. 

Subscribed and sworn to this 
day of , before me, 

A. B., Commissioner. 



J 



On being cross-examined by for the respondent, the witness 

above named deposeth : I saw James Jones at the meeting to which I 
have testified. He was outside of the building when the meeting was 
organized, &c., &c. 

The commissioner has no power to compel the attendance of witnesses. 
If any of those named in the order do not appear, he should take and 
report the evidence of the parties, showing their refusal or other reason 
for non-attendance. 

No. 69. The several boards of supervisors, whenever in 
their opinion the interests of education in their respective 
counties will be promoted thereby, may increase the salary 
of any commissioner to such sum as they may deem reason- 
able and just ; but the supervisors of the wards in any city 
not included in a school commissioner's district shall not vote 
upon such questions ; the increase over and above the five 
hundred dollars, payable to him from the United States deposit 
fund, to be a charge upon the county or district over which 
such commissioner may have jurisdiction ; and the same shall 
be assessed annually upon the towns composing such county 
or district, ratably, according to the corrected valuations of 
the real and personal estate of such towns. {Sec. 13, chap. 
179 0/1856.) 

No. 70. The boards of supervisors are hereby authorized 
and required to audit and allow to such commissioners such 
sums as they may have incurred for necessary expenses by 
them in the performance of their official duties, to an amount 



184 DUTT OF TOWN CLERKS. 

not exceeding one hundred dollars. ( Sec. 14, chap. 179 of 
1856.) 

No. 71. The several cities in this state which, under special 
acts, already elect superintendents of common schools, or 
whose hoards of education choose clerks doing the duty of 
supervision under the direction of the hoard of education, 
shall not he included in any commissioner's district created 
by this act or authorized to be formed by the board of super- 
visors ; and the several boards of supervisors, in counties in 
which such cities are joined to towns in the formation of an 
assembly district, may divide the county, exclusive of such 
cities, into such school commissioners' districts as they may 
deem advisable, but no town shall be divided in forming such 
districts. ( Sec. 16, cha;p. 179 of 1856. ) 



OF THE DUTY OF TOWN CLERKS. 

No. 72. It shall be the duty of the town clerk of each 
town : 

1. To receive from the present town superintendents all 
books, maps and papers appertaining to his oflEice, and to file 
and keep them in the to.wn clerk's office ; 

2. To receive from the supervisor the certificates of appor- 
tionments of school moneys for the town, and record them in 
a book to be kept for that purpose ; 

3. To notify the trustees of the school districts when such 
estimates and appropriations are filed in his office ; 

4. To see that the trustees of common schools make and 
file with him their annual reports within the time prescribed 
by law ; 

5. To distribute to the trustees of school districts all blanks 
and circulars which shall be delivered or forwarded to him by 
the commissioner for that purpose ; 

6. To receive from the supervisor, and record in a book 
kept for that purpose, the annual account of the receipts and 
disbursements of school moneys required to be submitted to 
the town auditors and filed with the said clerk, and to send 
a copy thereof by mail to the commissioner. ( Sec. 28, chap. 
179 0/1856.) 



OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS. 185 

The duties of the town clerk, as a member in certain cases of the 
board for the formation and alteration of districts, are discussed under 
that head. It may be his duty also to order a special district meeting 
in the case mentioned in § 66, chap. 480, Laws of 1847. {No 87, post). 



OF THE FORMATION AND ALTERATION OF SCHOOL 
DISTRICTS. 

No. 73. It shall be the duty of the [school commissioner, 
in respect to the several towns within his jurisdiction] : 

1. To divide the town into a convenient number of school 
districts, and to regulate and alter such districts as hereinafter 
provided ; 

2. To set off by itself any neighborhood in the town 
adjoining to any other state of this Union, where it has been 
usual or shall be found convenient for such neighborhood to 
send their children to a school in such adjoining state ; 

3. To describe and number the school districts, and to 
deliver the description and numbers thereof, in vmting, to 
the town clerk, immediately after the formation or alteration 
thereof; 

4. To deliver to such town clerk a description of each 
neighborhood adjoining to any other state, set off by itself. 
( Sec. 8, chap. 480 of 1847, school commissioner being substituted 
for town superintendent, in conformity to No. 65. ) 

This section, so far as it concerns the formation and alteration of dis- 
tricts, relates only to such districts as are formed of territory lying 
wholly within the jurisdiction of the school commissioner acting under 
it, and the formation or alteration of which, moreover, does not affect 
any other district which is wholly or partly in the assembly district or 
section of another school commissioner. If the district to be formed, 
altered or regulated includes a part of a town under the jurisdiction of 
another commissioner, or involves the division of a joint district, any 
part of which lies within such other jurisdiction, it is necessary that all 
the school commissioners should unite as a board in making the order 
for such alteration. 

The case is now exceedingly rare in which a new district can be 
formed, or any district be altered, without its necessarily involving an 

[Code.] 24 



186 OF THE FORMATION AND 

alteration of some other district, and thus rendering it necessary to pro- 
cure the assent of trustees, or to suspend the operation of the order, as 
provided in § 45, chap. 480, Laws of 1847 [JVo. 16, post). 

Where, in consequence of the existence of doubts in respect to the 
true boundaries of a district, it becomes expedient for the commissioner 
to make a new description thereof, it should be regarded as an alteration, 
and the written consent of the trustees of all the districts conterminous 
to the new described boundaries should be subscribed to the order, or 
notice should be given to them of such order, and that it will take effect 
at the expiration of three months after the service of a copy thereof. 
This rule was settled in a case where an appeal was taken from an order 
describing the boundary of a district, and in which the answer set up 
that the boundary thus established was not a new one, but only the 
record of a line which had always existed as the true boundary, though 
the written evidence was wanting. The principle is, that the commis- 
sioner has no power to adjudicate what is, but only to determine what 
shall be the boundary for the future. 

A preliminary notice of the commissioner's intention to make an 
alteration of a school district should in all cases be given to the trustees 
of every district to be affected thereby, before proceeding to make any 
order in the premises. [See Digest, ante page 91, and the comment tinder 
the next section, No. 74.) 

It is of extreme importance that the description of a district should 
be so complete and definite that a surveyor, at any future day, may be 
able to run its boundaries without reference to any other document 
than the order forming, altering or describing it. For this purpose the 
exterior lines should be defined by reference to natural monuments, 
marked trees, creeks, &c., or to township lines of historical notoriety, 
such as the lines of the great original subdivisions into lots, or the 
course of highways. Where these fail, the courses and distances as 
ascertained by the compass and chain should be given. The practice 
of stating the boundary as that of " the farm now in the occupation of 
C. D.," or by means of similar designations, frequently renders it very 
difficult to ascertain them, as the occupation of land is continually 
shifting. In Gray v. Sheldon, 8th Verm. R., 402, a resolution " to set 
off Isaac Gray, Jr., to school district No. 3," was held void on the 
ground that school districts should be defined by geographical limits, 
and be made to consist of territory and not of persons. 



ALTERATION OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS. 187 

The form of an order may be as follows : 

In the matter of the formation of District No. , in the 

town of , county of , and the 

consequent alteration of Districts No. in §.aid 

town, and No. in the town of {or in the 

matter of the description of District No. , as the case 

may be), 

It is hereby ordered, by the undersigned school commissioner for 

Assembly District No. 3, of the county of , that a new 

school district be formed, to consist of part of District No. , in the 

town of M., and part of District No. , in the town of P., which 

new district is hereby numbered [23], and is bounded as follows : 

Beginning on the east bank of Allen's creek, at the point where the 

same is intersected by the north line of the highway leading from 

Brighton to Pittsford; thence northeasterly along said creek to its 

junction with Irondequoit creek ; thence southeasterly along Ironde- 

quoit creek to the west line of the town of Brighton ; thence south 

along the boundary line between the towns of Brighton and Penfield 

to the north line of Pittsford ; thence west on said north line to the 

state road ; thence north along the state road to its intersection with 

the highway first above mentioned ; thence northwesterly along said 

highway to the place of beginning. 

In case the order is made with the consent of the trustees of the 
districts affected thereby, or of any such districts, the evidence of such 
consent should be annexed to the order in substantially the following 
form: 

At a meeting of the trustees of District No. , in the town 

of , county of , called for the purpose of 

considering certain proposed alterations thereof, held on the day 

of , at which were present J. D. and R. S., and in the 

absence of P. T., a trustee, who, having been duly notified of such 
meeting, failed to attend, it was 

Hesolved, That the consent of the trustees of District No. , in 

the town of , be and hereby is given to the alteration of 

said district by an order bearing date , made by , 

school commissioner for the Assembly district (or section) of 
county (or that said district be so altered as to be hereafter bounded as 
follows, describing the new boundaries fully). 



188 OF THE FORMATION AND 



In witness whereof, the undersigned, a majority of the said trustees, 
have hereunto subscribed our hands this day of 

■p' o'' [■ Trustees. 

The consent of the trustees must be absolute, not conditional. {^See 
Digest, ante, p. 10.) 

In case a majority of the trustees of any district affected by the 
order refuse their consent, the order should recite that fact, and that it 
will not take effect until after three months' notice, in writing, to some 
one or more of such trustees, as follows : 

" The trustees of District No. not having consented to this 

order, the same will not take effect, in respect to such last mentioned 
district, until after three months' notice, in writing, shall be given to 
some one or more of such trustees." 

Notice should in that case be immediately served upon one or more 
of the trustees, selecting for that purpose a trustee who is hostile to the 
alteration, and not one who was in favor of consenting. [See ante, 
pp. 1, 2 and 89.) A written admission of the service of such notice, 
signed by the trustee or trustees on whom it is made, should be annexed 
to the original order, and filed with it in the town clerk's ofiice, so that 
the entire history of the transaction and the date at which the order 
took effect may be ascertained at any subsequent time, without inquiry 
elsewhere or the examination of other documents. 

All orders making alterations in joint districts must be put on record 
in all the towns of which such districts constitute a part, even though 
such alterations do not directly affect persons residing in all the towns 
in which they are recorded ; " Thus, although no inhabitant of Tyrone 
was taken from (Joint) District No. 6 to form No. 8, the order, signed 
by the commissioners of both towns, should have been recorded in 
Tyrone, because No. 6 lies partly in that town. It is clear that unless 
such records are made, the commissioners of one town can never know 
the boundaries of a joint district without resorting to records in 
another town, over which they have no control." {Per. Dix, Supt. Com. 
Schools Dec, p. 175.) 

No. 74. In the erection or alteration of a school district, 
the trustees of any district to be affected thereby may apply 
to the supervisor and town clerk to be associated with the 
[school commissioner], and their action shall be final, unless 
duly appealed from ; the compensation of the supervisor and 



ALTERATION OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS. 189 

town clerk, when thus associated, shall be the same as that 
of the town superintendent. {Sec. 43, chap. 480 of 1847, 7nodi- 
fied hy substituting school commissioner for town superintendent, in 
conformity to No. 65. ) 

This section was originally § 3, chap. 133 of 1843, and was then first 
enacted upon the substitution of a town superintendent in the place of the 
former town board of commissioners of common schools. In so impor- 
tant a matter as the alteration of a school district, the legislature deemed 
it right that the districts to be affected should have the benefit of the 
consultation and judgment of a board composed of three persons, when- 
ever, for any reason, they elected to associate them, in preference to 
trusting their interests to the sole jurisdiction of the town superinten- 
dent. As the powers of the school commissioner in these cases are 
derived only from the transfer to him, by No. 65, of the powers formerly 
vested in the town superintendents, it is to be inferred that the school 
commissioner is to exercise his jurisdiction either alone or in conjunc- 
tion with the supervisor and town clerk, in the same manner as a town 
superintendent would have done, and that the decisions in respect to 
the powers and duties of the latter, under this section, are applicable to 
the former. 

Section 31, chap. 480 of 184*7, which established the compensation 
of town superintendents, and to which the above section refers, for that 
of the supervisor and town clerk when acting under it, is as follows : 

§ 31. The town superintendent shall be entitled to receive one dollar 
and twenty-five cents per day for every day actually and necessarily 
devoted by him in his official capacity to the service of the town for 
which he may be chosen, the same to be paid in like manner as other 
town officers are paid. 

The statute has not prescribed the steps to be taken for convening 
the supervisor, town clerk and school commissioner to deliberate upon 
the alteration of a district. It has been decided that this board is not 
an appellate tribunal, to sit in review of a decision made by the school 
commissioner {see Digest, ante, p. 96;, but is to exercise its jurisdiction 
upon the proposed alteration as an original question. The school com- 
missioner cannot call upon the supervisor and clerk to act with him, for 
the jurisdiction of the latter depends upon an application to them by 
the trustees of some district to be afi'ected. In order to give them the 
opportunity to make such application, and that it may be done or the 
option waived within a reasonable time, the school commissioner, before 



190 OF THE FORMATION AND 

making any alteration, stould serve upon one or more trustees of each 
district to be affected thereby a written notice, specifically describing 
such alteration, in substantially the following form : 

To the trustees of District No. , in the town of : 

Take notice, that I intend on the day of next, at 

(specifying a convenient place, and a time sufficiently remote to enable 
the trustees to make application to the supervisor and clerk, and for the 
latter to be prepared for the meeting), to make an order for the altera- 
tion of District No. , in the town of , so that its boundaries 
shall thereafter be as follows, viz : ( Here specify the proposed boun- 
daries of the district, as altered, in the manner recommended under 
No. 73). 

You are therefore requested to meet without delay and to adopt a 
resolution consenting to the above proposed alteration, in which case 
you will please furnish me, at the time and place above mentioned, with 
a copy thereof, certified under the hands of a majority of you, or to 
adopt a resolution applying to the supervisor and town clerk of the 
town (or towns if the district is a joint one) of to be associated 

with me at the time and place above mentioned in determining upon 
the propriety of such proposed alteration. In the latter case you will 
please transmit copies of such resolution, certified under the hands of a 
majority of you, to the supervisor and town clerk without delay, toge- 
ther with notice of the time and place above stated at which such altera- 
tion will be made by me in case of their non-attendance. 

The determination of the trustees to associate the supervisor and 
clerk, like every other official act, should result from the resolution of a 
majority, adopted at a meeting at which all are present or which the 
absent one has been duly notified to attend. No jurisdiction is obtained 
by the supervisor and clerk upon the application of less than a majority. 
(See Digest, ante, p. 88.) Their want of jurisdiction vitiates the action 
of a board in which they may assume to take part. Upon this .point 
the language of Vice-Chancellor Sandford (2 Sand. Ch. R.^22^) is very 
instructive. Discussing the effect of certain proceedings of a church 
council at which a majority of the trustees were present and in which 
they unanimously concurred, but in which the minister, elders and dea- 
cons also participated, he says : " the trustees in this case are by the 
charter the select class or body which is to exercise the corporate functions. 
In order to exercise them, they must meet as a hoard,, so that they 
may hear each others views, deliberate and then decide. Their separate 



ALTERATION OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS. 191 

action, individually, without consultation, although a majority in num- 
ber should agree upon a certain act, would not be the act of the con- 
stituted body of men clothed with the corporate powers. Nor would 
their action in a meeting of the whole body of corporators, or of another 
and larger class in which they are but a component part, be a valid 
corporate act. In thus acting they are not distinguishable from their 
associates, and their action is united with that of others who have no 
proper or legal right to join with them in its exercise. All proper 
responsibility is lost. The result may be the same that it would have 
been if they had met separately, and it may be different. In the general 
assemblage, influences may be brought to bear upon the trustees which 
in their proper board would be unheeded ; and no one can say with 
certainty that their vote in the latter event would have been the same." 

If the trustees have given the proper notice to the supervisor and 
clerk, the school commissioner can at the time and place appointed 
proceed to act in conjunction with either of them, in case the other 
omits to attend. It is true that the general rule is, when persons are 
appointed by the law to act as special tribunals of a quasi-judicial char- 
acter, then both parties are entitled to the presence of all the judges, 
and to have the benefits of the consultation of each with every other ; 
all must therefore meet together and consult, but then a majority may 
decide. In this case, however, though the law authorizes the trustees to 
apply to the supervisor and clerk, it furnishes no means of compelling 
their attendance, nor does it even in express terms declare it their duty 
to attend. It is only that one of them who accepts and acts under the 
application of the trustees who can be said to be appointed or vested 
with any power in the premises. Indeed, the doubt is rather whether 
the sole jurisdiction of the school commissioner is divested unless both 
the supervisor and clerk associate themselves with him. It is clear that 
they cannot act except in association with him. {^See Digest, ante, p. 74.) 

If neither attend, the commissioner may proceed to act alone ; for he 
has the general power, and cannot be deprived of it by a fruitless appli- 
cation to the supervisor and clerk, where the latter decline or omit to be 
associated with him. 

In the case of joint districts, the supervisors and town clerks of all 
the towns, parts of which are included in the district affected, have, 
under the practice recognized by the department, been associated with 
the town superintendents. In this case, the reasoning in favor of 
proceeding, notwithstanding the absence of some of the supervisors or 



192 OF THE FORMATION AND 

clerks, or even of both the supervisor and clerk of some of the towns, 
is stronger than in the case of a whole district. 

Under the adjudications of the department it has been held that each 
town in such case had but one vote, so that the vote of a superinten- 
dent from one town counterbalanced the concurrent vote of the super- 
intendent, supervisor and clerk from another town. As the school 
commissioner stands in the place of a town superintendent for each town 
within his jurisdiction, no town can be deemed to be unrepresented in 
consequence of the absence of its clerk and supervisor. The reasoning, 
however, which regarded the town officers as representatives of their 
respective towns is inapplicable since the substitution of the school 
commissioner for town superintendents, and each member of the board 
must be regarded under the existing law as having equal weight in the 
decision. In other words, it depends upon the majority of voices. 

The practice under the section in question has always been difficult 
and obscure ; and the recent changes in legislation render it so much 
more so that no opinion upon it can be expressed without qualifying 
with a doubt in respect to the ultimate decision. Further legislation is 
necessary if the section shall be allowed to stand as a part of the law. 
As an original question, it would admit of much doubt whether this sec- 
tion was in any case applicable to a joint district. 

No. lb. Whenever it may become necessary or convenient 
to form a district out of two or more adjoining towns, the 
[" school commissioner in respect to the several towns within 
his jurisdiction"] of each of such adjoining towns, or the 
major part of them, may form, regulate and alter such 
district. ( Sec. 44, chap. 480 of 1847, modified in conformity to 
No. Qb, ante.) 

The statute of 1819 made it the duty "of the commissioners afore- 
said (of common schools), or the major part of them, from each of such 
adjoining towns, to form such district, and to alter and regulate the 
same." Under this statute it was very properly decided by Supt. Flagg, 
(^Common School Dec, p. 23) that "no district can be formed or altered 
without the assent of two at least of the commissioners of the town in 
which the district is situated," and that " the law does not authorize the 
question to be settled by a joint ballot of the commissioners of two or 
more towns." This decision was followed, after the revision of 1830, 
apparently in consequence of overlooking the fact that the Eevised 
Statutes changed the language of the section by substituting "the 



ALTERATION OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS. 193 

comnlissioners of each of the adjoining towns, or the major part of them," 
which was held by Supt. Spencer, himself one of the revisors, to mean 
a major part of the board, instead of " the commissioners or the major 
part of them from each of such adjoining towns." When town super- 
intendents were substituted for the town commissioners of common 
schools, it was held by those who followed the decision of Supt. Flagg 
that the assent of the superintendent of every town including any part 
of a joint district was necessary to its alteration. It is believed that 
the construction adopted by Supt. Spencer was the correct one, and 
that where the alteration of a joint district requires the action of a 
board composed of three or more school commissioners, unanimity is 
not required, but a majority may decide. 

No. 76. No alteration of any school district, made without 
the consent of the trustees thereof, shall take effect until three 
months after notice, in writing, shall be given by the [school 
commissioner] to some one or more of such trustees ; nor 
shall any alteration or regulation of an organized school 
district be made to take effect between the first day of 
December in any one year, and the first day of May following. 
{Sec. 45, chajj. 480 of 1847, modified in conformity to No. 65.) 

In the case of Williams v. Larhin (3 Denio 114), it was held by the 
supreme court, where an alteration of school districts made by the 
proper oflBcers affected three districts, and the trustees of two of the 
districts consented to the alteration, but the trustees of the other district 
did not consent, that the alteration took effect immediately as to those 
districts whose trustees consented. In that case a part of District No. 
14 was annexed to No. 3 with the consent of the trustees of both 
districts; the residue of No. 14 was annexed to No. 13 without the 
consent of the trustees of the latter. Judge Bronson, delivering the 
opinion of the court, says : "Although both alterations were made at 
the same time, they were not in their nature inseparable acts, and I see 
no reason why they might not take effect at different periods." It is 
obvious that alterations may be so connected and dependent upon each 
other as to render the principle of this case inapplicable. For example, 
so much of the order as annulled District No. 14 could not take effect 
until the expiration of three months, notwithstanding its trustees 
consented, because it was dependent upon the annexation of so much 
of said district as remained to No. 13. No. 14 was a district \yvag 
wholly within one town. According to the opinion of Supt. Spencer 

[Code.] 25 



194 OF THF FORMATION AND 

{Digest, ante, p. 8), an order for the dissolution of a joint district saiglit 
be valid, although the annexation of its parts to other districts might be 
void ; and consequently its dissolution might take effect immediately, 
though the annexation of its parts to other districts might be suspended 
for three months. 

While the alteration is inchoate it is wholly inoperative upon the 
rights of any person. Thus, where an order was made to annex terri- 
tory to an existing district without the consent of the trustees of the latter, 
it was held that, before the expiration of the three months after notice, 
the same territory might be annexed to a third district withoiit the 
consent of the trustees who had refused the annexation first proposed ; 
but that the assent of the district from which it was taken by the first 
order was requisite. {Common School Dec, p. 65.) So, residents upon: 
the territory to be transferred continue to be legal voters, and are 
entitled to notice of all district meetings held between the making of 
the order and the time it takes effect {see Digest, ante, p. 86), and 
must be assessed on any tax list made out in the mean time. 

No. 77. If the [school commissioner having jurisdiction] 
in any town shall require, by notice in writing, the attendance 
of the [school commissioner] of any other town or towns, at 
a joint meeting for the purpose of altering a school district 
formed from their respective towns, and a major part of the 
[school commissioners] notified shall refuse or neglect to 
attend, the [school commissioners] attending, by a majority 
of votes, may call a special district meeting of such district, 
for the purpose of decidmg on such proposed alteration ; and 
the decision of such meeting shall be as valid as if made by 
the [school commissioners] of all the towns interested, but 
shall extend no further than to dissolve the district formed 
from such towns. {Sec. 46, chap. 480 of 1847, modified in 
conformity to No. 65.) 

This section can become operative only in the rare case where three 
or more commissioners are requisite for the alteration, as it is only in 
such case that the major part can neglect to attend. The provision 
conveys a strong implication that, if a majority do attend, the board is 
competent to act as if all were present. If but one attends, and two or 
more absent themselves, it is to be inferred (though not without doubt) 
that he may call a district meeting. 



ALTERATION OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS. 195 

The obscurity arises from the fact that the original section, enacted 
in 1822, and adopted in the revision of 1830, provided for the meeting 
of town boards, each composed of three commissioners ; this was changed 
by simply substituting the words "town superintendents" for commis- 
sioners. As each superintendent succeeded to the authority of the 
board of commissioners of his town, it is fairly to be argued that he 
possessed, and that a school commissioner now possesses, the power of 
calling a meeting, notwithstanding the incongruity of the words care- 
lessly left in the statute, " a majority of votes," with the action of a 
single person. 

If the district meeting elects to dissolve the district (which is the 
extent of its power), the several parts revert to the towns in which they 
are respectively included, and become subject to regulation by the school 
commissioner having jurisdiction therein. ( See case of Kewstead and 
Clarence, Digest, ante, p. 8.) 

No. 78. When two or more districts shall be consolidated 
into one, the new district shall succeed to all the rights 
of property possessed by the districts of which it shall be 
composed; and when a district is annulled and portions 
thereof are annexed to other districts, the property of the 
district so annulled shall be sold by the [school commis- 
sioner] of the town in which the school-house is located, 
at public auction, to the highest bidder therefor, after at 
least five days' public notice by notices posted in three or 
more public places in said town, one of which shall be 
within the district so annulled, and the proceeds of such 
sale shall be first applied, so far as requisite, to the payment 
of any jnst debts due from the district so annulled, and the 
residue thereof shall be apportioned among the taxable in- 
habitants of the district so annulled, in the ratio of their 
several assessments upon the last corrected assessment roll of 
the town or towns within which such district is located. 
( Sec. 50, chap. 480 of 1847, as amended by § 2, chap. 382 of 
1849, and modified in conformity to No. 65. ) 

When two districts are consolidated, the public money which either 
may have in the hands of the supervisor, unexpended, becomes applica- 
ble to the payment of teachers' wages and to the library of the consoli- 
dated district, without any distinction between the inhabitants or pupils 
of the former districts. If there is any money due to a teacher of either 
district, it should be drawn before the consolidation takes effect, or so 



196 OF THE FOEMATION AND 

much of it as is applicable to the payment of wages during the term in 
which they were earned. 

A district is annulled only when all its parts are annexed to other 
districtSj so that nothing of the original district remains. If any of it 
remains as a distinct district, although designated by a new name and 
number, it is not a case of annulling. 

In respect to the property to be sold : Property is defined in the Code 
of Procedure as including lands, tenements and hereditaments, money, 
goods, chattels, things in action and evidences of debt. The only point 
upon which much question is likely to arise regards the library of the 
annulled district. A portion of the books may have been purchased 
with money voted by the district and raised by tax upon the district. 
So far as these are concerned, they undoubtedly belong to the district 
and may be sold when it is annulled. In respect to those which have 
been purchased by the library money apportioned from the income of 
the United States deposit fund, the case is different. The money of the 
state was appropriated to the support of common schools by furnishing a 
library, and there is nothing to imply an intention that it should ever 
be diverted from its public purpose by becoming private property. 
The trustees of the district are made trustees of the library, but the 
property in it, it is declared, " shall be deemed to be vested in such trus- 
tees, so as to enable them to maintain any action relative to the same." 
The legislature seem to have designed hereby to confer only a qualified 
property, for a specific purpose, retaining the general property in the 
people of the State of New- York, precisely as the property of the 
library of the court of appeals, the attorney general, (fee, is held. 

It is believed, therefore, that the books, so far as they have been pur- 
chased from the funds of the state, should be distributed precisely as the 
money itself would be if it came to the hands of the commissioner for 
distribution on the day of the annulling of the district ; that is, should 
be assigned to the respective districts to which parts are annexed, in 
proportion to the number of children between four and twenty-one 
resident in such parts, according to the last report of the trustees. 

It may happen in the case of a joint district that parts of it are 
within the jurisdiction of two school commissioners, and a school-house 
be situated in each of those parts. In such case, to avoid all question, 
both commissioners should unite in the sale of all the property and in 
executing the necessary bills of sale and deeds of the real estate. 

The power to sell authorizes a sale only for ready money. The com- 
missioner therefore should require cash payment, and should make and 



ALTERATION OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS. 197 

proclaim it as a condition of the sale that unless full payment be made 
within a limited number of hours the property may be exposed without 
further notice, and that any loss upon such second sale shall be borne by 
the bidder not completing his purchase. This condition should be 
inserted in the posted notices. 

No. 65, ante, imposes upon the commissioner the disposal and appor- 
tionment of the moneys arising from the sale, but proceeds : " and he 
shall pay over the said moneys to the supervisors, to be by them paid to 
the districts or parts of districts which may be entitled to receive the 
same." To satisfy the terms of the original section and the provisions 
above cited from No. 65, it would seem to be requisite that the commis- 
sioner should ascertain the just debts due from the district annulled, and 
make the apportionment of the residue of the proceeds of the sale 
among the taxable inhabitants, leaving the money in the hands of the 
supervisor for payment to the creditors and inhabitants of the district. 

The debts must be ascertained from the trustees, and the supervisor 
should only pay them upon the written order of a majority of the trus- 
tees. If debts are claimed which are not admitted by the trustees, the 
money should be retained until any legal proceeding instituted for their 
collection is determined. 

The last corrected assessment roll is that which was delivered by the 
assessors to the supervisor to be laid before the board of supervisors. 
If in the equalization by the board of supervisors the valuation of real 
estate has been changed, the roll as thus varied by them is to be fol- 
lowed in distributing the money. But the completion of a new roll by 
the assessors, and its delivery to the supervisor, supercedes the roll of the 
preceding year, although the latter has been and the former has not 
been passed upon by the board of supervisors. (7 Wend., 89; and see 
Digest, ante, p. 104.) 

In a joint district, where the proportion of taxes to be assessed upon 
the parts of such districts lying in different towns have been established 
by the supervisors of such towns, under sec. 72, chap. 480 of 1847, joos?^ 
No; 129, the proceeds of the sale are to be divided between the parts 
of the districts in the proportion thus established, and the shares of such 
parts then apportioned to their respective inhabitants on the last cor- 
rected assessment roll of the town in which each part lies. 

No. 79. When there shall be any moneys in the hands ©f 
the officers of a district that is or may be annulled, or beloBg- 
ing to such district, the [supervisor] of the town may demand, 



198 OF THE FORMATION AND 

sue for and recover the same, in his name of office, and [after 
deducting his costs and expenses shall report the balance in 
his hands to the commissioner, who] shall apportion the same 
equitably between the districts to which the several portions 
of such annulled district may have been annexed, to be held 
and enjoyed as district property. {Sec. 52, chap. 480 of 1847, 
modified in covformity to No. 53.) 

The collector and trustees are the only officers of a district in whose 
hands there can be legitimately any money ; such money may be the 
proceeds of a tax collected but not expended. In such case, the equita- 
ble mode of distribution would be to apportion it to the districts accord- 
• ing to the amount which the taxable inhabitants and property set off to 
each have contributed thereto ; the same rule would hold in regard to 
the proceeds of the sale of school-houses or other property acquired by 
taxation. 

In case, however, the money is applicable to the payment of the 
current expenses of schools, such as the share of a town fund, the 
income of a school lot or the districts' proportion of fines for gambling, 
under chap. 504 of 1851, the equitable rule of apportionment is to 
assign it to the districts in proportion to the number of pupils resident 
in the parts annexed to them respectively. 

In case it becomes necessary to bring an action against the officers 
of a joint district, the supervisors of all the towns of which it forms a 
part must join as plaintiffs in the suit. 

It may be doubted whether the supervisor is authorized to maintain an. 
action against any other person than an officer of a district for moneys 
belonging to it; the statute, giving him the power to sue, confining it to 
penalties and forfeitures, and to defaults and omissions by town and 
district officers ; the trustees should in such case bring the action before 
the order annulling their district takes effect. 

No. 80. "Whenever a school district shall be dissolved, by 
consolidation or otherwise, it shall be the duty of the trustees 
of such district to make out all the necessary rate bills and 
tax lists, and issue their warrants according to law for the 
collection of all such sums of money as shall be necessary to 
discharge all legal liabilities of such district so dissolved or 
consolidated, and to call special meetings of the legal voters 
of such district, if it be necessary to raise money by tax, to 
discharge such demands ; and the collector to whom any such 



POWERS OF DISTRICT MEETINGS, &c. 199 

rate bill or tax list and warrant shall be delivered for collection, 
shall have power to execute the same in the same manner and 
with like authority as though such district had not been 
dissolved or consolidated. {Sec. 53, chap, 480 of 1847.) 

Though the statute contaiub no limitation of the time within which 
the trustees of a dissolved or consolidated district are required to dis- 
charge their duties under this section, there can be no valid reason for 
any longer delay than may be essential to ascertain its outstanding 
liabilities. The pendency of litigation, in respect to some of them, may 
put it out of the power of the trustees to act immediately, and their 
powers doubtless continue so long as any legal liability subsists ; the 
existence of the district is maintained for this special purpose, and its 
last oflficers hold over until it is accomplished. In case of the removal, 
death or other inability of the clerk or collector, it is probably within 
the power of the trustees to fill the vacancy by appointment. The 
difficulties which may arise in filling such vacancies, and the impossi- 
bility of supplying a vacancy among the trustees, must admonish the 
latter of the serious importance to themselves of settling the affairs of 
the district with the greatest possible dispatch. 



OF THE POWERS OF SCHOOL DISTRICT INHABITANTS, 
AND OF THE CHOICE, DUTIES AND POWERS OF SCHOOL 
DISTRICT OFFICERS. 

No. 81. Whenever any school district shall be formed in 
any town, it shall be the duty of the [" school commissioner, 
in respect to the several towns within his jurisdiction,"] 
within twenty days thereafter, to prepare a notice, in writing, 
describing such district, and appointing a time and place for 
the first district meeting, and to deliver such notice to a 
taxable inhabitant of the district. {Sec. 54, chap. 480 of 1847, 
modified in conformity to No. 65.) 

Where two or more districts are consolidated, the united territory 
forms a new district. It is necessary to elect new trustees and other 
district officers, and the notice provided by this section should, therefore, 
be given by the commissioner. The meeting for organization cannot 
be held until the district " shall be formed," that is, not until the order 
for its formation shall have taken efi"ect by the consent of trustees, the 



200 POWERS OF DISTRICT MEETINGS 

expiration of three montlis' notice or the decision of an appeal, if one 
has been brought. 

The notice is to describe the district by metes and bounds, so that 
the inhabitant to whom it is delivered may know, without recourse to 
any other document, over what territory he is to search for inhabitants. 
It may be in the following form : 

To , a taxable inhabitant of District No. , in the 

town of : 

Whereas, By an order of the school commissioner for the 
assembly district (or section^ where a county forming but one assembly 
district is divided) of the county of , which order is dated 

the day of , and took effect on that day (or will take 

effect on the day of next, specifying the day, which 

must precede the day of meeting), a school district is formed, num- 
bered No. , and bounded and described as follows, viz : Begining 
(pursuing the description as in the note to No. VS.) 

You are hereby required to notify every male person of full age, 
residing in the territory above described and entitled to hold lands 
within this state, who owns or hires real property subject to taxation for 
school purposes, and every resident of such territory authorized to vote 
at town meetings of the town of , (in the case of a joint district, 

Bay, either of the towns of or ) and who has 

paid any rate bill for teachers' wages in such territory within one year 
preceding the day of (the date of the meeting, not of the 

notice), or who owns any personal property, liable to be taxed for school 
purposes in such territory, exceeding fifty dollars in value exclusive of such 
as is exempt from execution, that the first district meeting of said district 
is hereby appointed to be held at the house of , at six o'clock 

in the afternoon of the day of next, for the purpose of 

electing a district clerk, three trustees, a district collector and a librarian; 
of designating sites for two or more school-houses, to which I hereby 
consent; and of voting such taxes to purchase or lease such sites, to hire, 
build or purchase such school-houses, to keep in repair and furnish the 
same with necessary fuel and appendages, for the purchase of a book 
for the purpose of recording the proceedings in the district, and, in their 
discretion, an additional tax, not exceeding twenty dollars, to purchase 
maps, globes, black-boards and other school apparatus; to adjourn from 
time to time as occasion may require, and at such meeting or any 
adjourned session thereof to transact such other business as the inhabi- 
tants then assembled shall deem expedient. 



AND OF DISTRICT OFFICERS. 201 

You are required by law to read this notice in the hearing of each 
inhabitant qualified as above described, or, in case of his absence from 
home, to leave a copy of so much thereof as relates to the time and 
place of such meeting at the place of his abode, at least six days before 
the time of the meeting. Dated this ' day of 

A. B., 

School Commissioner, 

It is not claimed to be absolutely essential that the notice should be 
as fiill as the form above recommended. It is essential that the time of 
day and the place of meeting should be accurately specified. (16 Verm. 
H., 444.) It is eminently desirable that the notice should be so broad 
that no person hearing it should have the slightest ground for profess- 
ing to be surprised at any business which can by possibility be presented 
at the meeting. This is a rule that is applicable to all notices for all 
meetings. At the same time, it is expedient that the earliest occasion 
should be taken to apprise the inhabitants of the extent of the powers of 
a district meeting, and how little they are limited by the terms of the 
notice. A meeting lawfully assembled for one object is competent to 
act upon others which were not in the contemplation of those who pro- 
cured it to be called, and may do almost anything except change the 
site of the school-house. It is true that, though the proceedings of a 
meeting may be entirely regular and legal, it is within the equitable 
powers of the State Superintendent, upon an appeal, to set them aside 
where it can be shown that there was a fraudulent design to frame the 
notice in such a manner as to conceal the real purpose for which the 
meeting was convened. But it is not to be forgotten that the object of 
the notice is merely to assemble the inhabitants as the local legislature, 
and that when so assembled their powers are defined, not by the notice 
but by the statute. Indeed it would follow, from the general principles 
which have been applied by the courts to elections and other corporate 
acts, that " if all were present, though 6y accident and without notice, 
their acts would be good." (King y. Theoderic, 8 ^asi., 543 ; see also 
11 Wend., 604.) In reference to an annual meeting, the supreme court 
(6 Hill, 64*7) say: "for greater caution, and to give greater publicity to 
the meeting, the statute directs the clerk to post notice of it ; but that 
is not essential to its validity. The time and place for holding it may 
always be ascertained by examining the clerk's records, and an objection 
that notice was not duly posted should never be allowed to prevail. 
The foundation of the meeting is the order of a previous annual meet- 

[CODE.] 26 



202 POWERS OF DISTRICT MEETINGS 

ing, not the posting of a notice by the clerk. The former is indispensir 
ble, but not the latter." (See pp. 63, avS 74, ante.) 

No. 82. It shall be the duty of such inhabitant to notify 
every other inhabitant -of the district, qualified to vote at dis- 
trict meetings, by reading the notice in the hearing of such 
inhabitant, or, in case of his absence from home, by leaving a 
copy thereof, or of so much thereof as relates to the time and 
place of such meeting, at the place of his abode, at least six 
days before the time of the meeting. {Sec. 55, chap. 480 of 
1847.) 

In computing statute time, the first day, or the day on which the time 
begins to run, is to be excluded. (10 Barb., llY.) The notice under 
.this section, must be six full days, exclusive of the day of service, and 
must therefore be given as early as the seventh day before the meeting. 

It is always important that the persons on whom and the manner in 
which the notice has been served should be verified by proper evidence, 
which can be preserved. In reference to a similar notice under the 
school law of Massachusetts, the supreme court of that state says: "When 
the selectmen direct a warrant for calling a school district meeting to a 
proper person, he is made a returning officer for that occasion. All 
returning officers are ministerial, and are bound to set forth in their 
returns all the acts done by them, that the proper tribunal may judge 
of their sufficiency. They are not competent to judge of the legality 
of a notice or service ; and a return that a precept had been legally 
served, or that the duty enjoined by a warrant had been duly performed, 
would most clearly be insufficient." To obviate this objection the 
inhabitant who gives notice of the meeting should frame his return in 
substantially the following manner : 

Pursuant to the within notice, I have notified the inhabitants quali- 
fied and residing as therein described, at least six days before the time 
of the meeting, in the following manner, viz : By reading the notice in 
their hearing — John Doe, Charles Davis, &c. (naming them in full) ; by 
leaving a copy of so much of the within as relates to the time and place 
of meeting at their respective places of abode, they being absent from 
home — Robert Kidd, Henry Hunter, &c., &c. This return, endorsed 
upon the notice and signed by the inhabitant making it, should be pro- 
duced at the meeting and filed with the records of the district. It 
constitutes the appropriate evidence of the service of notice ; but it is 
not to be inferred that in its absence secondary evidence may not be 



AND OF DISTRICT OFFICERS. 203 

receive<J to support the proceedings of the meeting, whose jurisdiction 
depends upon facts and not upon mere evidence. 

It is proper to remark that the notice should be given to every 
inhabitant having any pretension to a right to vote, although the person 
giving it may deem his qualifications insufficient. The giving him 
notice determines nothing as to the right; the omission of it may 
invalidate the proceedings and subject the voters to the inconvenience 
of a second meeting. 

No. 83. la case such notice shall not be given, or the inhabi- 
tants of a district shall refuse or neglect to assemble or form 
a district meeting, when so notified ; or in case any such dis- 
trict, having been formed and organized in pursuance of such 
notice, shall afterwards be dissolved, so that no competent 
authority shall exist therein to call a special district meeting 
in the manner hereinafter provided ; such notice shall be 
renewed by the [school commissioner] and served in the man- 
ner above prescribed. [Sec. 56, chap. 480 of 1847, modified in 
conformity to No. 65.) 

No comment is necessary upon so much of this section as relates to 
the repetition of the notice of the first meeting for the organization 
of a district. The power of the commissioner to call a meeting in a 
district after it has been organized by the election of officers is restricted, 
so far as this section goes, to the case of no competent authority exist- 
ing therein in consequence of its having been dissolved. It is intended 
to provide only for the case of a joint or consolidated district being 
severed. A subsequent section confers the power of calling meetings 
upon the commissioner in the cases therein mentioned. 

No. 84. Every taxable inhabitant, to whom a notice of a 
district meeting shall have been properly delivered for service, 
who shall refuse or neglect to serve the notice in the manner 
above in this article enjoined, shall for every such oiTence for- 
feit the sum of five dollars. {Sec. bl, chap. 480 of 1847.) 

It will be observed that this section imposes a penalty for every 
refusal, to serve a notice for ani/ district meeting properly delivered to 
an inhabitant. It is coextensive with the preceding section. A doubt 
whether the commissioner is legally entitled to his office will not excuse 
a refusal, if he be an officer de facto, holding under color of election 
and exercising the duties of the office. It is not for a ministerial officer 



204 POWERS OF DISTRICT MEETINGS 

to judge of tlie validity of the election of an officer de facto ; for 
example, a district clerk should serve a notice signed by persons recog- 
nized and acting as trustees, though he deems them to have no title to the 
office and regards the notice as invalid. {^See 1 John., 552 ; Digest, 
ante, pp. 55 and 61.) 

No. 85. Every notice of a district meeting called in pursu- 
ance of this act shall state the purpose for which such meet- 
ing is called. {Sec. 64, chap. 480 of 1847.) 

It is of great importance to the peace and harmony of districts that 
no inhabitant should have the slightest foundation for alleging himself 
to have been misled as to the object for which a district meeting is 
called. The statute therefore enjoins a distinct declaration of the pur- 
poses of those who procure the call of a meeting in the notice for it. 
It is a violation of official duty on the part of the trustees to omit the 
mention of any subject which it is intended to submit to the considera- 
tion of the inhabitants. For their own protection, and for the purpose 
of rendering the proceedings safe against objection, they should seek to 
err by unnecessary fullness and particularity in the enumeration of 
the purposes of a meeting rather than by an omission which they 
may deem of no importance. It is true, indeed, that every inhabitant 
who absents himself from any meeting, voluntarily assumes the risk that 
those who assemble may act upon various subjects not mentioned in the 
notices, and bind the absentees by their determination, but this furnishes 
no excuse for the officers whose duty it is to give him the amplest 
warning in their power. 

No. 86. In each school district an annual meeting shall be 
held at the time and place previously appointed j and at the 
first district meeting, and at each annual meeting, the time 
and place of holding the next annual meeting shall be fixed. 
{Sec. Qb, chap. 480 of 1847.) 

It has been recommended by the State Superintendent that the first 
Tuesday of October should be fixed by law as a general time for hold- 
ing the annual meetings. The fiscal year of the state closes with the 
30th of September, and it is very desirable that the annual accounts of 
the districts should be brought up to the same time. Many districts 
have voluntarily conformed to this suggestion, and it is in the power of 
all to do so by adjourning their annual meeting to that day. {See 
Digest^ ante, p. 3.) It is necessary, however, as the law now stands, that 



AND OF DISTRICT OFFICERS. 205 

the resolution fixing the time and place for the next, should be repeated 
at each, annual meeting. 

No. 87. Whenever the time for holding annual meetings in 
a district for the election of district officers shall pass without 
such election being held, a special meeting shall be notified by 
the clerk of such district to choose such officers ; and if no 
such notice be given by him or the trustees last elected or 
appointed within twenty days after such time shall have passed, 
the [town superintendent] or town clerk may order any inhabi- 
tant of such district, qualified to vote at district meetings, to 
notify such meeting in the manner provided by law in case 
of the formation of a new district ; and the officers chosen at 
any such special meeting shall hold their office until the time 
for holding the next annual meeting. ( Sec. QQ, chap. 480 of 
1847.) 

The statute has not substituted the school commissioner or supervisor 
in place of the town superintendent for the purposes of this section. It 
is intended to provide for the case where an annual meeting has fallen 
through (at least so far as the election of officers is concerned), the time 
of which was regularly fixed by the preceding annual meeting, or in 
default of that by the trustees. In that case the clerk and other oflS- 
cers hold over until superseded by a new election, and cannot be super- 
seded by an appointment. It is the duty of the trustees in the first 
instance to order a meeting for that purpose, and for the clerk to give 
the notice. If the trustees fail to order a meeting, the clerk should 
himself appoint a time and give the notice, and this he should do 
notwithstanding the expiration of twenty days (the statute in regard to 
the time being merely directory), unless the town clerk shall have 
acted in the premises. The town clerk should promptly make the 
order, upon the application of any inhabitant, at the expiration of 
twenty days, without waiting for the action of the trustees or district 
clerk. 

No. 88. When the clerk and all the trustees of a school 
district shall have removed or otherwise vacated their office, 
and where the records of a district shall have been destroyed 
or lost, or where trustees neglect or refuse to call meetings to 
choose trustees, the superintendent shall have authority to 
order such meetings, and the same shall be notified in the 



206 POWERS OF DISTRICT MEETINGS 

manner provided by law in the case of the formation of new 
districts. {Sec. 67, chap. 480 of 1847.) 

This section is substantially a transcript of § 4, chap. 330 of 1839, 
and the superintendent meant by it is the State Superintendent. 

An inhabitant who neglects to serve a notice under either of the two 
preceding sections is liable to a penalty of five dollars under iV^o. 84, 
ante. 

No. 89. When in consequence of the loss of the records of 
a school district, or the omission to designate the day for its 
annual meeting, there shall be none fixed, or it cannot be 
ascertained, the trustees of such district may appoint a day 
for holding the annual meeting of such district. {Sec. 68, 
chap. 480 of 1847.) 

The direction of the trustees to the clerk to give notice of an annual 
meeting for a particular day is an appointment of that day. {Digest^ 
ante, p. 103.) It ought to be in writing, subscribed by a majority of the 
trustees, and should recite the fact that no day was designated at the 
last annual meeting, or that the same cannot be ascertained. In case 
the records state that a day was designated, but the fact is disputed, the 
trustees should obviate the objection by formally appointing the day 
mentioned in the records, sufficient time in advance to enable the clerk 
to post a notice of at least five days. 

No. 90. A special meeting shall be held in each district 
whenever called by the trustees; and the proceedings of no 
district meeting, annual or special, shall be held illegal for want 
of a due notice to all the persons qualified to vote thereat, 
unless it shall appear that the omission to give such notice 
was willful and fraudulent. {Sec. 69, chap. 480 of 1847.) 

The provision to cure the defect of notice relates to the mode and 
extent of service, and not to the insufficiency of the matter contained 
in the notice itself. 

It was intended for cases where through accident or mistake the 
proper legal notice has not beten given to all who are entitled to it ; but 
it cannot be construed to extend to cases in which no attempt is made 
to give the notice required by law to any of the inhabitants. Where 
the clerk of a district undertakes to give a notice in the manner provi- 
ded by the statute, and has failed, unintentionally, to serve such notice 



AND OF DISTRICT OFFICERS. 207 

on all the persons entitled to receive it, or where such notice is imperfectly 
served, the proceedings of the meeting will not be void on that account. 
They may, however, be set aside on appeal, on showing sufficient cause. 
[Com. School Dec, 186, 223; and also Digest, ante, p. 86.) 

No. 91. Whenever any district meeting shall be called in 
the manner prescribed in the preceding sections of this article, 
it shall be the duty of the inhabitants of the district, qualified 
to vote at district meetings, to assemble together at the time and 
place mentioned in the notice. {Sec. 58, chap. 480 of 1847.) 

The question of residence is one frequently agitated, not only with 
respect to the right of voting and of holding district offices, but in 
regard to the enumeration of pupils. The principles which govern its 
determination have been largely discussed by the courts in construing 
the words residence, domicil and inhabitancy, which, though not in all 
respects and for all purposes convertible terms, mean generally the same 
thing. 

Inhabitancy and residence, says Chancellor Walworth (8 Wend., 140), 
"mean a fixed and permanent abode or dwelling place for the time 
being, as distinguished from a mere temporary locality of existence." To 
acquire a domicil two things are necessary, the fact of residence in a 
place, and the intent to make it a home. To retain a domicil once 
acquired, actual residence however is not indispensable, but it is retained 
by the mere intention not to change it or adopt another, or rather by 
the absence of any present intention of removing therefrom. Nor is the 
domicil affected by the forming of an intention to remove, unless such 
intention is carried into effect. This results from the rule that a domicil 
once acquired remains until a new one is acquired. In legal contem- 
plation, every person must have a domicil somewhere, and he can only 
have one domicil at one and the same time. 

In determining the locality of a man's existence, where he divides his 
hours between different buildings, the place of his dwelling-house is 
first regarded in contradistinction to any place of business, trade or 
occupation. If he has more than one dwelling-house, that in which he 
sleeps or passes his nights, if it can be distinguished, will govern. If 
the dwelling-house is partly in one town and partly in another, the 
occupant must be deemed to dwell in that town in which he habitually 
sleeps, if it can be ascertained (23 Pick., 178.) 

The constitution establishes the rule, by § 3, art., 2, that " For the 
purpose of voting, no person shall be deemed to have gained or lost a 



208 POWERS OF DISTRICT MEETINGS 

residence by reason of his presence or absence wbile employed in the 
service of tbe United States ; nor while engaged in the navigation of 
the waters of this state, or of the United States, or of the high seas ; 
nor while a student of any seminary of learning ; nor while kept at any 
alms-house or other asylum at public expense ; nor while confined in » 
any public prison." 

The intention of remaining, requisite to constitute a resident, must 
be independent of any temporary purpose of business, health or plea- 
sure, though it does not necessarily exclude the idea of removing after 
an indefinite time, or a change of circumstances. Once established in 
any place, the presumption of residence continues unless rebutted, and 
the burthen of proof is upon a party alleging a change. 

The following is a condensed statement of the rules given by Judge 
Story ( Conflict of Lawg, chap. 3 ) ; most of them are stated and illus- 
trated by our supreme court (4 Barb.^ 518) : 

1. The place of birth of a person is considered as his domicil, if it 
be at the the time the domicil of his parents. This is called the domi- 
cil of nativity. But if his parents are on a visit or on a journey, the 
home of the parents will be deemed his domicil. An illegitimate child 
follows the domicil of his mother ; 

2. The domicil of birth continues until he has acquired a new domi- 
cil; 

3. A minor is generally deemed incapable of changing his domicil, 
but if the parent changes his domicil that of the minor follows it. K 
the father dies his last domicil continues that of his minor children. 
This rule is subject to qualification if the minor has been emancipated 
from parental control or adopted into a new family ; 

4. A married woman follows the domicil of her husband; 

5. A widow retains the domicil of her deceased husband until she 
acquires another ; 

6. Prima facie, the place where a person lives is deemed his domicil; 
Y. Every person of full age having a right to change his domicil, if 

he removes to another place with an intention of making it his perma- 
nent residence, that immediately becomes his domicil ; 

8. If a person removes to another place with an intention of remain- 
ing there for an indefinite time, and as a place of present domicil, it 
becomes his domicil notwithstanding he may entertain a floating inten- 
tion to return at some future period ; 

9. The place where a married man's family resides is generally 
deemed his domicil, but not if it be a merely temporary establishment ; 

10. If a married man has his family in one place and his business in 
another, the former is deemed his domicil ; . 

11. If a married man has two places of residence at different times 
of the year, that will be esteemed his domicil which he himself selects 



AND OF DISTRICT OFFICERS. 209 

or deems his Lome, or whicli appears to be tlie centre of his affairs, or 
where he votes or exercises the rights and duties of a citizen ; 

12. If a man is unmarried, that is generally deemed his domicil 
where he transacts his business, exercises his profession or assumes the 
privileges or duties of a citizen. But this rule is subject to qualifica- 
tion ; 

13. Residence, to produce a change of domicil, must be voluntary, 
not by imprisonment, &c. ; 

14. Mere intention to remove, without the fact of removal, will not 
change the domicil ; nor will the fact of removal without intention. 
They miast go together ; 

15. A domicil, once acquired, remains until a new one is acquired. 

No. 92. Every male person of full age, residing in any 
school district and entitled to hold lands in this state, who 
owns or hires real property in such district subject to taxation 
for school purposes, and every resident of such district autho- 
rized to vote at town meetings of the town in which such 
district or part of district is situated, and who has paid any 
rate bill for teachers' wages in such district within one year 
preceding, or who owns any personal property liable to be 
taxed for school purposes in such districts exceeding $50 
in value, exclusive of such as is exempt from execution, 
and no others, shall be entitled to vote at any school district 
meeting held in such district. ( Sec. 59, chap. 480 of 1847.) 

Cases elucidating the qualifications of voters will be found at pages 67, 
81 and 90, ante. They must in all cases be males, twenty-one years of 
age, and residents of the district. Possessing these qualifications, a man 
to be entitled to vote must possess also one of the following qualifications, 
and either one is sufficient : 

1. He must be entitled to hold lands, and therefore, if an alien, must 
have complied with the condition stated at page 81, and must also own 
or hire real property in the district subject to taxation; it matters not 
how small is the real property or how brief the term for which it is 
hired ; tenancy from week to week of a shanty or a room is sufficient. 
The real property must be subject to taxation, and it matters not that 
the person claiming to vote as the owner or hirer of it is not actually 
taxed for it himself, or that the property is not taxed to the owner or 
any other person. A man of color m.aj, therefore, be a voter at a district 
meeting, who hires real property of less than $250 in value, because it 
is subject to taxation as the property of the owner ; although the man 
of color cannot vote as the owner of real property of less than |250 in 

fCoDE.] 27 



210 POWERS OF DISTRICT MEETINGS 

value, because the constitution (§ 1, art. 2) exempts him from taxation 
unless he possesses a freehold estate of that value. Quere, however, 
whether a man of color who owns real property, worth say $200, which 
he rents to a white man, so that the latter is taxable as occupant, is 
not entitled to vote at a district meeting. 

2. Or must own personal property liable to taxation exceeding $50 in 
value, exclusive of such as is exempt, and must be authorized to vote at 
town meetings of the town in which the district, or the part thereof 
where he resides, is situated. 

In Crawford v. Wilson, 4 Jlill, 504, the supreme court held in 
effect that in estimating the amount of a voter's personal property a 
debt due to him from a school district for teachers' wages, and from his 
father. for services, might be taken into account. No unnaturalized alien, 
Indian or man of color can entitle himself to vote in virtue of his 
possession of taxable personal property. His claim must be tested 
by the possession of the right to vote at town meeting, which requires 
citizenship (which excludes aliens and Indians) for ten days, residence of 
the state for one year next preceding, and of the county for the last 
four months, and, in regard to the man of color who is a citizen, the 
real property qualification also. 

3, Or he must be entitled to vote at town meetings, and must have 
paid a rate bill for teachers' wages within one year preceding. In 4 
Jlill, 516, above cited, it was held that the payment by the voter of part 
of a rate bill for teachers' wages, although included in the sum assessed 
against his father, comes within the terms of the act. 

This qualification, like the preceding, is inapplicable to unnaturalized 
aliens, Indians and men of color. 

The personal property exempt from execution is defined by law as 
follows : " When owned by any person being a householder ; and such 
articles thereof as are movable shall continue so exempt while the 
family of such person or any of them may be removing from one place 
of residence to another. 

"1. All spinning wheels, weaving looms, and stoves put up or kept 
for use in any dwelling-house ; 

" 2. The family bible, family pictures, and school books used by or in 
the family of such person; and books not exceeding in value fifty 
dollars, which are kept and used as part of the family library ; 

" 3. A seat or pew occupied by such person or his family in any house 
or place of public worship ; 

" 4. All sheep to the number of ten, with their fleeces, and the yarn 
or cloth manufactured from the same (though not the owner of the sheep 



AND OF DISTRICT OFFICERS. 211 

on wticli grew the fleeces from wliich they are made, 21 Wend., 69), 
one cow, two swine, the necessary food for them (but not for a team, 
5 Benio, 119), all necessary pork, beef, fish, flour and vegetables actually 
provided for family use (although such vegetables may be in the ground, 
undug or not fully grown, 25 Wend., 370), and necessary fuel for the 
use of the family for sixty days ; 

" 5. All necessary wearing apparel, beds, bedsteads and bedding for 
such person and his family, arms and accoutrements required by law 
to be kept by such person, necessary cooking utensils, one table, six 
chairs, six knives and forks, six plates, six teacups and saucers, one sugar 
dish, one milk pot, one tea pot and six spoons, one crane and its appen- 
dages, one pair of and-irons and a shovel and tongs ; 

" 6. The tools and implements of any mechanic necessary to the 
carrying on of his trade, not exceeding twenty-five dollars in value." 
(Sec. 22, chap. 6, art. 2, tit. 5, part 3, Rev. Stat.) 

It is also provided, by chap. 157 of 1842, that in addition to the articles 
before enumerated, there shall be exempted from levy and sale under 
execution " necessary household furniture, and working tools, and team 
owned by any person being a householder or having a family for which -^^'•'^ \ 
he provides, to the value of not exceeding fl50; provided that such "' >';»'^^ 
exemption shall not extend to any execution issued on a demand for 
the purchase money of such furniture, or tools, or team or articles now 
enumerated by law." * 

* " No replevin shall lie for any property taken by virtue of any warrant for 
the collection of any tax, assessment or fine in pursuance of any statute of this 
state." {2R. S.,p. 522, {) 4.) 

This provision must, however, be subject to the action of congress on a subject 
which by the constitution is within its jurisdiction. The constitution in express 
terms gives to congress the power " to provide for organizing, arming and disci- 
plining the militia." 

By the act of congress of May 8, 1792 {vol. 2, Laws of the United States, 293), 
every citizen enrolled in the militia is required to provide himself with the fol- 
lowing accoutrements, viz : "A good musket or firelock, a sufficient bayonet and 
belt, two spare flints and a knapsack, a pouch with a box therein, to contain not 
less than twenty-four cartridges suited to the bore of his musket or firelock, 
each cartridge to contain a proper quantity of powder and ball ; or with a good 
ri_fle,_knapsack, shot pouch and powder horn, twenty balls suited to the bore of 
his rifle, and a quarter of a pound of powder;" and the commissioned oflacers 
are required to be armed with a sword, or hanger^ or espontoon ; and it is 
declared that every citizen so enrolled and providing himself with arms, ammuni- 
tion and accourtrements, required as aforesaid, shall hold the same exempted from 
all suits, distresses, executions or sales for debts, or for the payment of taxes. 

By the laws of this stale (chap. 6, pariS, title 5, () 22, vol. 2, ^. ,S'.), the " arms 
and accoutrements required by law to be kept by any person," as well as a variety 
of other articles therein specified, are exempt from execution, but not from 
distress from taxes. The only exemption, therefore, from the operation of a col- 
lector's warrant on a tax list, arises under the act of congress before quoted, and 
this can only be extend«d to the arm^, ammunition and accoutrements therein 
specified. 



212 POWERS OF DISTRICT MEETINGS 

No. 93. If any person offering to vote at any school district 
meeting shall be challenged as unqualified, hy any legal voter 
in such district, the chairman presiding at such meeting shall 
require the person so offering to make the following declara- 
tion : "I do declare and affirm that I am an actual resident 
of this school district, and that I am qualified to vote at this 
meeting." And every person making such declaration shall 
be permitted to vote on all questions proposed at such meet- 
ing, but if any person shall refuse to make such declaration 
his vote shall be rejected. {Sec. 60, cAop. 480 of 1847.) 

{See Digest, p. 61, ante.) A party knowing a person to be unquali- 
fied and permitting him to vote "without challenge will not be allowed 
to object to the proceedings of the meeting because such unqualified 
person participated in them. It has been the practice of some of the 
State Superintendents upon appeal to disregard the objection that 
unqualified persons voted, unless they were challenged, although it did 
not appear that the fact of their disqualification was known at the time 
.of the meeting. The rule is well settled, that proceedings will not be 
vitiated by illegal votes unless a diff'erent result would have been pro- 
iduced by excluding such votes. {See Digest, ante, p. 99.) It lies upon 
the party objecting to show that fact, even, according to the judgment 
of the supreme court, in V Cowen, 153, if the nature of the proceeding 
is such as to deprive him of the power, as in the case of a vote by ballot. 
In the case cited the court say : " For aught that appears, the spurious 
ballots were for the ticket which was in the minority. To warrant 
setting aside the election, it must appear affirmatively that the successfid 
ticket received a number of improper votes, which, if rejected, would 
have brought it down to a minority." It is also incumbent upon the 
appellaiit to state the facts showing the lack of qualification in such 
terms as to necessarily exclude every presumption that the voter could 
be qualified under either of the three heads stated in the note to the 
previous section. {See Digest, ante, p. 90.) 

A challenge should be interposed at the very first instance in which 
an unqualified person may off"er to vote ; for it would be very unjust to 
permit a party to avail himself of a vote so long as it should be cast in 
accordance with his views, and then to object when a diff"erence mani- 
fested itself between himself and the voter. 

If a challenge is interposed upon the vote for chairman, the person 
who made the nomination ordinarily takes the question upon it, and 
should regard himself as temporary chairman, and require the declaration 



AND OF DISTRICT OFFICERS. 213 

prescribed by tbe statute from the challenged party, "vvbicli should be 
given in the very words of the law. 

No. 94. Every person who shall willfully make a false 
declaration of his right to vote at a district meeting, upon 
being challenged as hereinbefore provided, shall be deemed 
guilty of a misdemeanor, and punished by imprisonment in 
the county jail for a term not exceeding one year nor less 
than six months, at the discretion of the court ; and any per- 
son voting at any school district meeting without being quali- 
fied, shall, on conviction, be subject to a fine often dollars, to 
be sued for and recovered by the trustees of the district for 
its use, and with costs of suit, before any justice of the peace. 
( Sec. 61, chap. 480 of 1847.) 

No. 95. The inhabitants so entitled to vote, when so assem- 
bled in such district meeting, or when lawfully assembled at 
any other district meeting, shall have power, by a majority 
of the votes of those present : 

1. To appoint a chairman for the time being ; 

2. To adjourn from time to time, as occasion may require ; 

3. To choose a' district clerk, three trustees, a district col- 
lector and a librarian at their first meeting, and as often as 
such offices or either of them become vacated ; 

4. To designate a site for a district school-house ; 

5. To lay such tax on the taxable inhabitants of the dis- 
trict as the meeting shall deem sufficient to purchase or lease 
a suitable site for a school-house, and to build, hire or pur- 
chase such school-house, and to keep in repair and furnish the 
same with the necessary fuel and appendages ; 

6. To alter, repeal and modify their proceedings from time 
to time, as occasion may require ; 

7. To vote a tax for the purchase of a book for the purpose 
of recording the proceedings in their respective districts ; 

8. With the consent of the [school commissioner] of the 
town, to designate sites for tw^o or more school-houses for such 
district, and lay a tax on the taxable property in such district 
to purchase or lease such sites, and to hire, build or purchase 
such school-houses, and to keep in repair and furnish the same 
with necessary fuel and appendages, and may also in their 
discretion lay a tax, not exceeding twenty dollars in any one 
year, to purchase maps, globes, black-boards and other school 
apparatus. {Sec. 62, chap. 480 of 1847.) 



214 POWERS OF DISTRICT MEETINGS. 

In the exposition of this very important section, each of the powers 
conferred by it will be separately treated. It is to be observed, that th.e 
section grants these powers to the inhabitants entitled to vote, when 
lawfully assembled at their first district meeting, or at any other district 
meeting. It is impossible in the face of these explicit words to confine 
the exercise of these powers to an annual meeting, or to limit them to 
the objects expressed in the notice under which the meeting is called. 
[See Digest, ante, pp. 15, 98, 104.) This does not conflict with the 
doctrine that it is the duty of trustees, when giving notice of every 
meeting, to state the purpose for which it is called. They are bound to 
inform the inhabitants what business they, or those at whose instance 
they give the notice, propose to lay before the meeting. But their 
neglect in this particular cannot deprive the inhabitants of any power 
which the statute confers upon them. The inhabitants are the legisla- 
tive power, and, when lawfully assembled, are entitled to consider and 
act upon propositions aff"ecting the interests of the district, by whomso- 
ever offered and with however little premeditation, unless where speci- 
ally restrained, as they are in respect to a change of site. 

The resolutions of the meeting are determined by a majority of the 
votes of those present and voting, and do not require the votes of a majority 
of all present and not voting. Even if the words of the statute were 
less explicit this would be the rule at common law, which, as stated by 
Lord Mansfield (2 Burr., 1021), is: "Whenever electors are present 
and do not vote at all, they A^rtually acquiesce in the election made by 
those who do." In that case twenty-one electors were present, nine of 
whom voted for S. as town clerk, eleven protested against him Avithout 
voting for any one else, and one other said " he suspended doing 
anything." The action of the twelve was held to be the same as if they 
had been silent ; and being present, but silent, exactly as if they had 
been absent. They must be taken to assent to what the others agree to 
in carrying out the purpose of the meeting. 

The same doctrine is applied in a recent case (V Adolph. <&; Ellis, 
454) to other resolutions than those for an election. The court say : 
" The principle, indeed, may be best illustrated by the analogy drawn 
from electoral meetings ; but it is, in truth, of a very general nature, 
and inseparable firom the proceedings of any assembly convened for 
doing some act necessary to be done at that meeting. The majority 
must do it ; otherwise, however necessary, it will be left undone. But 
what majority ? The majority of those who choose to take a part in 
the proceedings of the assembly. At almost every meeting of commis- 



POWERS OF DISTRICT MEETINGS. 215 

sioners for executing public works and imposing rates for that purpose, 
it is probable tbat the resolution is formed by a small number of those 
who attend, on whom the larger number are content to rely. If it were 
found as a fact that five had passed the resolution in a room containing 
twenty, of whose proceedings the other fifteen were ignorant, this would 
be the undoubted act of the whole meeting, if the proceedings had 
been conducted regularly and no fraud were practiced to occasion the 
ignorance of the fifteen. But suppose the twenty were convened to do 
an act which the law required them to do at that time, and the only 
open question was as to the mode of doing it ; a mode lawfal in itself 
is regularly submitted, whereupon fifteen declare that though the law 
has imposed the daty on them they entertain so strong an objection, on 
grounds of conscience, to the law, that they refuse entirely to concur in 
obeying it. What must be the consequence ? Must the law be set at 
nought and its requirements be disregarded, or must not those who 
stand aloof be considered as refusing to assist in the execution of their 
duty and leaving it to be done by the minority, which is desirous of 
doing what is right ?" 

We proceed to consider the several powers of a district meeting in 
the order of the statute. 

1. To appoint a chairman for the time being : As the statute directs 
the appointment of a chairman^ he should be so entitled, and not moder- 
ator or president. The acceptance of the position does not deprive the 
chairman of the right to vote upon any question submitted to the 
meeting. {See Digest^ ante, p. 68.) He may either give a casting vote 
upon a tie, or, when there is a majority of one in favor of any resolution, 
may vote with the minority, and thus make a tie vote, which defeats the 
resolution ; or without waiting for this result may, upon the call of yeas 
and nays by the clerk, vote when his name is reached. He can, 
however, cast but one vote upon the question. 

It is the chairman's duty to put every question to vote which is made 
and seconded. {Ante, p. 42.) If he deems the motion out of order, he 
should so declare ; if the party making the motion deems his decision 
upon the point of order erroneous, it his right to appeal to the meeting 
from such decision, and, if the appeal is seconded, it is the duty of the 
chairman to put the question : " Shall the decision of the chair be 
sustained ? " If upon such appeal the meetnig vote against the decision 
of the chair, it is the chairman's duty to put the original question ; a 
refusal to do so is disorderly, and it is in such case in the power of the 
meeting to select a new chairman who will conform to its decision. The 



216 POWERS OF DISTRICT MEETINGS. 

motion for this purpose may, from the necessity of the case, be put by the 
clerk. There being no code of rules to regulate the proceedings of district 
meetings, that must be held to be in order to which a majority consents. 
The office of the chairman is to facilitate the ascertaining of the "wishes of 
the majority. If their determination be illegal, the remedy is by appeal. 

2. To adjourn from time to time, as occasion may require : A motion 
for adjournment takes precedence of all others, for otherwise the meeting 
might be kept in session against its will, and for an indefinite period. A 
majority who were desirous of adjourning could not withdraw without 
leaving all the powers of the meeting in the possession of the minority. 
[See Digest, ante, p. 20.) And if any other motion were permitted to 
take precedence, it might be in the power of a factious minority, by 
renewing such motions, to wear out the physical endurance of the 
majority. This motion, however, cannot be received after another 
question is actually put, and while the meeting is engaged in voting 
upon it ; but in such case the vote must be concluded and the result 
announced by the chairman. If a question be put for adjournment, it 
is no adjournment until the chairman pronounces it. 

An adjournment is either without day or to a specified time. In the 
former case all propositions upon which the question has not been taken 
are discontinued, and are not taken up at another meeting except upon a 
fresh proposition. In the latter case it is but a continuance of the session; 
all matters depending remain in the same situation in which they were 
left, and when the meeting again convenes are resumed at the precise 
point at which they were left. The statute, however, regards an adjourn- 
ment for more than one month as constituting a new meeting, so far as 
to require the posting of written notices of the time and place thereof 
in four at least of the most public places of the district, at least five 
days before the time appointed. If a special meeting be properly 
called, or the annual meeting occur in the mean time, its powers in 
reference to any subject are not impaired by the fact that a previous 
meeting, having such subject under consideration, stands adjourned to 
a subsequent day. [See Digest, ante, pp. 83, 98, and 6 Metcalf, Mass. 
Bep., 509.) 

3. To choose a district clerk, three trustees, a district collector, and 
a librarian, at their first meeting, and as often as such offices or either 
of them become vacated : The office of clerk, collector or librarian is 
incompatible with that of trustee. {See Digest, ante, p. 1.) The statute 
[sec. 6, chap. 480 of 1847) provides that "no town superintendent of a 
town shall hold the office of trustee of a school district, nor shall a per- 



POWERS OF DISTRICT MEETINGS. 217 

son chosen a trustee hold the office of district clerk, and no town 
superintendent shall hold the office of either supervisor or town clerk." 

As all the duties which rendered the office of town superintendent 
inconsistent with that of trustee are now devolved upon the school 
commissioner, the latter, under the policy of the law, is inelegible to 
the office of trustee. In reference to votes ca^t for disqualified candi- 
dates, the law is thus stated in 7 Adolph <& Ellis 437 : "The result of 
the decisions appears to be this : Where the majority of electors vote 
for a disqualified person in ignorance of the fact of disqualification, the 
election may be void, or voidable, or in the latter case may be capable 
of being made good, according to the nature of the disqualification. 
The objection may require ulterior proceedings to be taken before some 
competent tribunal in order to be made available, or it may be such as 
to place the elected candidate on the same footing as if he had never 
existed and the votes for him were a nullity ; but in no case are the 
electors who vote for him deprived of their votes. If the fact becomes 
known and is declared while the election is still incomplete, they may 
instantly proceed to another nomination and vote for another candidate. 
If it be disclosed afterwards, the party elected may be ousted, and the 
election declared void (by a competent tribunal) ; but the candidate in 
the minority will not be deemed ipso facto elected. But where an 
elector before voting receives due notice that a particular candidate is 
disqualified, and yet will do nothing but tender his vote for him, he 
must be taken voluntarily to abstain from exercising his franchise ; and 
therefore, however strongly he may in fact dissent, and in however strong 
terms he may disclose his dissent, he must be taken in law to assent to 
the election of the opposing and qualified candidate, for he will not 
take the only course by which it can be resisted, that is, help to elect 
some other person. * * * If he dissents from the choice of A., who is 
qualified, he must say so by voting for some other, also qualified ; he has no 
right to employ his franchise merely in preventing an election, and so 
defeating the object for which he is empowered and bound to attend. 
* * * Where the disqualification depends upon a fact which may 
be unknown to the elector, he is entitled to notice, for without that the 
inference of assent could not fairly be drawn, nor could the consequences 
as to the vote be just ; but if the disqualification be of a sort whereof 
notice is to be presumed, none need expressly be given. No one can 
doubt that if an elector would nominate and vote only for a woman, his 
vote would be thrown away. The fact would then be notorious, and 
every man would be presumed to know the law upon that fact." 

[CoDE.1 28 



218 POWERS OF DISTRICT MEETINGS. 

A person who is present at the meeting, when elected to any office, will 
be deemed to accept the same unless he declares his refusal, so that if 
the meeting chooses to excuse him a new election may be had. Any 
votes given for him for an incompatible office subsequent to such 
acceptance must be deemed void. It is in his power, however, to elect 
which of two such offices he will hold, and, if present, he should declare 
which he vacates, that the meeting may at once proceed to fill it. If 
absent, his acceptance of the office of trustee, in preference to any other 
district office, is to be presumed. 

While the session continues, the meeting has power, under a reso- 
lution to reconsider its proceedings, to make a new election, although 
a person has been then elected with his assent {see Digest, ante, iJ. 19), 
because the right to the office is not complete until the inhabitants by 
separating have left it incumbent upon the person elected to enter upon 
his duties. If, however, they separate, an adjourned session has no 
power to oust an officer elected {see Digest, ante, p. 16), though they 
may fill a vacancy, existing by his refusal to accept. [Digest, ante, p. 100.) 

The inhabitants have the power and it is their duty to fill every 
vacancy existing in a district office at any meeting, notwithstanding it 
has existed more than one month. {Digest, ante, p. 105.) If the 
vacancy has been created by any other cause than the expiration of the 
incumbent's term, it is advisable that a resolution should be passed 
declaring such vacancy to exist, and expressly stating the ground on 
which the meeting adjudges the office vacant. Cases are reported 
{Digest, ante, pp. 51, 53) where removal from a district, though not such 
as to forfeit the rights of the party as an inhabitant, and where an actual 
incapacity to serve, though not declared by law, have been held suffi- 
cient to justify treating them as creating a vacancy. In such cases, 
the officer removing, or becoming incapable, for any reason, of discharging 
his duties, ought to furnish written evidence thereof by a tender of his 
resignation. If he omits to do so, it is for the appointing power to judge 
in the first instance whether a vacancy exists; and although it may err 
in so declaring, the officer appointed will be deemed an officer de facto, 
and his acts in relation to the public and third persons deemed valid, 
until his election is pronounced void. 

4. To designate a site for a district school house : This should be 
done by. a resolution describing the metes and bounds in such a manner 
that a surveyor can lay it out without recourse to any other document, 
or to oral instructions. {See Digest, ante, p. 33.) The power of desig- 
nating a site cannot be delegated to the trustees. (17 Wend., 43 Y.) 



POWERS OF DISTRICT MEETINGS. 219 

They or any other committee may be charged by the inhabitants "with 
making the necessary examinations as to location, title, price, &c., but it is 
not until the meeting have acted upon their report that a site is desig- 
nated. Nor is the site then established, so as to require a special meeting 
to change it, until a title has been acquired or legal obligations incurred 
by the trustees in behalf of the district by a valid contract for the 
purchase [see Digest, ante, p. 76), which, to be binding under the statute 
of frauds, must be in writing, under seal and subscribed by the parties to 
be bound thereby. 

The question frequently arises whether the district has a title to a site, 
so as to render a new designation equivalent to an additional site requir- 
ing the consent of the school commissioner under the 8th subdivision of 
this section, or a change of site requiring a meeting called by special 
notice for that purpose. It is ordinarily started in consequence of 
doubts, as to the title of a site actually occupied or claimed by the 
district, growing out of the want of a deed, or the loss of a deed without 
its having been recorded, where one was originally executed. 

A right in real estate may be acquired either by grant, by deed duly 
executed and delivered, or by an adverse possession of twenty years 
under claim of title, in which case the law presumes a grant, or by a 
valid contract for the conveyance, where a court of equity will enforce 
a specifiij performance, or in the case of the public by dedication. 

In reference to the first mode : In the case of occupation under a 
grant, it is not material that the deed has been lost, for the paper itself 
is but evidence of the fact, and upon showing its loss, the existence and 
contents of the deed may be proved by other testimony ; nor is the 
fact of its not having been recorded material, for the recording act is 
only for the benefit of purchasers in good faith and without notice, and 
the possession of real estate is held by the courts to be sufficient notice 
to put a purchaser upon inquiry as to the rights of the party in posses- 
sion, and to charge him with notice of all facts to which such inquiry 
might have led. {See Digest, ante, p. 1.) 

As to the second mode, or adverse possession : A naked possession, 
not accompanied with any claim of right, will never constitute any bar 
but will enure to the advantage of the real owner. The Code of Pro- 
cedure provides that the occupation " shall be deemed to have been under 
and in subordination to the legal title, unless it appear that such 
premises have been held and possessed adversely to such legal title for 
twenty years," and it defines what kind of possession shall be deemed 
adverse, as follows : " Whenever it shall appear that the occupant or 



220 POWERS OF DISTRICT MEETINGS. 

those under whom lie claims entered into the possession of premises 
under claim of title, exclusive of any other right, founding such claim 
upon a written instrument as being a conveyance of the premises in 
question, or upon the decree or judgment of a competent court, and 
that there has been a continued occupation and possession of the premises 
included in such instrument, decree or judgment, or of some part of 
such premises, under such claim for twenty years." " Where it shall 
appear that there has been an actual continued occupation under claim 
of title, exclusive of any other right, but not founded upon a written 
instrument or decree, the premises so actually occupied, and no other, 
shall be deemed to have been held adversely." It provides in the latter 
case that " land shall be deemed .to have been possessed and occupied 
in the following cases only : 

" 1. When it has been protected by a substantial inclosure ; 

"2. When it has been usually cultivated and improved." {Sec Code of 
Procedure, in appendix to Session Laws of 1851, j9. 33.) 

Where there has been an actual occupation of premises in either of the 
modes above described, an oral claim of exclusive right is sufficient, 
without the pretension that such claim is founded upon a written instru- 
ment, and a claim of title even under a paper altogether void and 
inoperative as a deed, will yet characterize a possession as adverse. (24 
Wend., 604.) The possession is evidence only of such title as the party 
has asserted. If, therefore, the claim has been only to hold at suffer- 
ance, or conditionally, or for a term of years, it can never ripen into a 
better title. 

As to the third mode : An equitable title is acquired where a party has 
entered into possession under a contract for a conveyance, and has 
performed or tendered performance of the conditions upon which by 
the contract the legal title was to be transferred. A court of equity 
will enforce such a contract, where there has been a partial execution of 
it by the transfer of possession on the one side and by payments on the 
other, notwithstanding the contract was by parol, and void under the 
statute of frauds. Every case of this character will require the careful 
examination of counsel into all the facts, and no discussion of the 
principles applicable thereto would be profitable in this place. 

Fourthly, land may be dedicated to pious and charitable purposes 
(and such is the establishment of a school), with or without writing, 
by express declaration of the party thus devoting it, or by unequivocal 
acts on his part, such as marking a lot in the plot of a tract divided by 
him into town lots as the " school lot," and referring to such plot in his 



POWERS OF DISTKICT MEETINGS. 221 

deeds of conveyance, as was tlie case in 1 1 Pa. State Rep., 444. All 
that is required is the assent of the owner of the land, clearly mani- 
festing his purpose to. make a permanent appropriation, and the fact of 
its being used for the public purpose intended by the appropriation. [See 
6 mil, 412.) 

5. To lay such tax on the taxable inhabitants of the district as the 
meeting shall deem sufficient to purchase or lease a suitable site for a 
school-house, and to build, hire or purchase such school-house, and to 
keep in repair and furnish the same with the necessary fuel and appen- 
dages : It is not necessary to designate a site before laying a tax to 
build a school-house. (11 Wend., 437; 3 Denio, 116.) The same rule 
will apply to a tax for the purchase of a site. The inhabitants may 
vote such tax as they " deem sufficient," and if, upon the selection of a 
site and the negotiation for its purchase, the tax is found to be, in fact, 
insufficient, may vote a further tax. If it be found unnecessarily large, 
they may vote to refund the excess to the tax payers or appropriate it to 
any purpose for which they have power to lay a tax. [Com. School Dec, 
315.) There is no. limitation to the amount which may be voted for the 
purchase of a site {Digest, ante, p. 41), and the expense of investigating 
the title and recording the deed may legitimately be included. [Digest, 
ante, p. 15.) The purchase of additional ground to enlarge the site is not 
a change of site, and does not require the vote of a meeting called by 
special notice, nor the consent of the school commissioner. {Digest, ante, 
p. 34.) Though the statute authorizes the leasing of a site, it does not 
permit the contracting of a permanent debt for the future rent. {Digest, 
ante, p. 32.) It is not uncommon for districts to hold land under lease 
granting it for a consideration, paid in advance, so long as the same shall 
be used for the site of a school-house or the purpose of a district school. 
It is greatly to be preferred that the district should obtain an indefeasible 
estate in fee simple, and, whenever possible, it should be procured ; but, 
inasmuch as there is no compulsory process provided by the laws of this 
state by which the title to land for school purposes can be transferred, 
where the owner is unwilling, a district is sometimes under the necessity 
of accepting an inferior estate. In such cases a question often arises as 
to the right of the district to the school-house at the expiration of the 
term for which the land is held. The law is thus stated by Judge Har- 
ris (7 Barb,, 266) : " Any one who has a temporary interest in land, and 
who makes additions to it or improvements upon it for the purpose of 
the better use or enjoyment of it, while such temporary interest con- 
tinues, may, at any time before his right of enjoyment ceases, rightfully 



222 POWERS OF DISTRICT MEETINGS. 

remove such additions and improvements. If lie omit to sever the 
addition or improvement until his right of enjoyment ceases, such omis- 
sion is to be deemed an abandonment of his right, and thereafter the 
addition or improvement he has made becomes, to all intents, a part of 
the inheritance, and the tenant, as well as any other person vfho severs 
it, becomes a trespasser. I think this may now be stated to be the 
general rule in respect to fixtures which a tenant attaches to the free- 
hold. To this extent has the original rule of the common law yielded 
to the changed condition of society. There may be exceptions to the 
general rule I have stated, but I think they will be found limited to 
cases where the removal of the additions or improvements made by the 
tenant would operate to the prejudice of the inheritance, by leaving it 
in a worse condition than when the tenant took possession." 

A tax voted for the purchase of a site cannot be voted by instalments. 
{^Digest, ante, p. 79.) • 

While it is no objection to a tax that a title has not been acquired, it 
is the duty of the trustees not to part with the money without receiving 
a conveyance [Digest, ante, p. 54), and in respect to this duty, a ques- 
tion frequently arises about incumbrances by way of mortgage. The 
vote appropriating money for the purchase of a site is to be construed 
as liftiiting the amount the district can at any time be called upon to 
pay for it, and therefore implies (unless the contrary expressly appears) 
a title free from any incumbrance. Where a portion of a tract subject 
to mortgage is purchased, the rule of law is that upon a foreclosure the 
land remaining the property of the mortgagor shall be first sold, and 
if that prove insufficient to satisfy the mortgage, then that which he 
has conveyed is to be sold in the inverse order of alienation ; that is to 
say, that which he conveyed latest is to be sold first. It may frequently 
happen that the district will have ample security, in the land retained 
by the person from whom it derives title to a site, for its indemnity 
against a mortgage, and that the existence of a mortgage, covering land 
greatly exceeding in value the amount secured thereby, will be but a 
nominal incumbrance and no serious objection to the title. If this be 
clear, however, there will ordinarily be little difficulty in procuring from 
the holder of the mortgage a release of the site from its lien. If the 
trustees fail in obtaining it, they will be justified in requiring an express 
vote of the district, after laying the facts before a meeting, before pay- 
ing for the site or making any expenditure or contract for building 
upon it. 



POWERS OF DISTRICT MEETINGS. 223 

In regard to the power to vote a tax for a school-liouse, the question 
sometimes arises how far it is permissible that the house should be con- 
nected with other erections made for different purposes, and subject to 
other control than that of the district. It is held that there can be no 
partnership in the erection of a school-house which will prevent the 
district from controlling it entirely for the purpose of a district school, 
and that a tax cannot be voted for a building for joint use, as a church 
and school-house or an academy and school-house. ( Com. School Dec, 
201, 290.) It is not essential, however, to constitute a house, that it 
should include the whole of the building in which it is contained. 
Apartments, with an outer door to each, and having no communication 
with each other, are considered as distinct houses, though they origi- 
nally made but one. (G Mod. JR., 214.) In G Mete, 510, the supreme 
court of Massachusetts held that " if, under color of this corporate power 
of a district, the district should vote to erect an expensive and ornamen- 
tal building, with a view to improve the neighborhood, to enhance the 
value of real estate, to accommodate societies, lecturers, dramatic exhibi- 
tions, or even to have a convenient place for religious meetings or public 
worship, or for any other use tlian that of a district school, it would not 
be within the legitimate authority of a school district, and any vote to 
levy a tax on the inhabitants for such purpose would be void." In that 
very case, however, the comi; sustained a tax of $1700, voted with 
liberty to certain persons " to build a hall over the school-house, with 
the privilege of an entrance and stair-way in the front entry of said 
house, in consideration that the district may have the use of said hall, 
free of charge, for all school district meetings, for all examinations of its 
schools, and for the delivery of lectures on the subject of education, no 
public meeting being held in said hall during the usual school hours 
unless by consent of the prudential committee of the district, and the 
proprietors of said hall insuring the whole building."' In 1 Mete, 541, 
it was held that tenements are as essentially distinct when one is under 
the other, as where one is by the side of the other ; and in 4 Mass. R., 
5*76, the court say that " in legal contemplation, each of the parties has 
a distinct dwelling-house, adjoining together, the one being situated over 
the other. The lower room and the cellar are the dwelling-house of the 
defendant; the chamber, roof and other parts of the edifice are the 
plaintiff's dwelling-house." {See also 10 Conn. B., 318.) 

While it is very desirable that every district should own an ample 
and commodious school-house, entirely separate from every other build- 
ing, it sometimes happens in feeble districts that the scantiness of its 



224 POWERS OF DISTRICT MEETINGS. 

means renders it necessary to consult economy by uniting witli a reli- 
gious society or other association in erecting two houses under tlie same 
roof; the upper story, for example, being a church or town hall, while 
the lower is a school-house. No legal objection is conceived to exist to 
such an arrangement, provided the district secures by proper covenants : 
First, The undivided control at all times of the school-rooms and of 
the doors and passages affording access thereto. Second, That the 
other rooms shall not be used at any time during school hours for an 
assemblage or purpose which can distract the attention of pupils, or 
interfere, by noise or otherwise, with their instruction. Third, That 
the parties using the other rooms shall pay the whofe, or a definite pro- 
portion, of the expense of such repairs upon those nooms, or the roof or 
other parts of the building, as the district shall from time to time deem 
necessary for maintaining the school-house in good condition and pro- 
tecting it from injury by leakage or otherwise. Fourth, That those 
parties shall pay the expense of any insurance (not in a mutual com- 
pany, as the district has no power to enter into such a contract as their 
policies create) necessary to protect the district from the increased risk 
of fire, caused by any use to which the other parts lof the building may 
be put. The best mode to secure the performance of these covenants is 
for the district to insert them as a condition, in a lease of the rooms, to 
be executed by the trustees — the district retainingithe general title to 
the site and everything upon it — and the lease to terminate upon a 
breach of any of the conditions, besides authorizing, in express terms, 
the trustees to recover any damages the district may sustain by a failure 
to perform any of the conditions. It should also; contain an express 
provision that whenever a district meeting shall determine that the 
residue of the building is needed for school purposes, the same shall 
become its property upon payment of the then appraised value of the 
labor and materials used in its construction. 

A fence, separate privies for the two sexes, wood-house, stoves, stove- 
pipe and bell have been held to be necessary appendages to a school- 
house, or rather that it is within the discretion of a district meeting to 
adjudge them such and vote a tax therefor. 

Money cannot be raised by a tax in a school district for contingent 
purposes (Com. School Dec, 233, and Digest, ante, p. S), nor can a tax 
be voted for arrearages generally, or to reimburse trustees or other offi- 
cers of the district for moneys expended by them, unless it appears by 
the vote that the money is to be applied to one of the objects for which 
taxes may by law be raised. (Id., 316.) 



POWERS OF DISTRICT MEETINGS. 225 

Where a tax is voted by the inhabitants for any purpose, the specific 
amount of the tax and the particular purpose for which it is designed 
should be fully and clearly stated. [Digest^ ante, p. 94.) And where 
several objects of expenditure are to be provided for, the amount to be 
raised for each should be expressed in the resolution, in order that the 
district and the trustees may know the precise extent of their liability 
and the mode of its application. There may be cases, however, where 
the necessary amount to be raised cannot be ascertained with any 
approach to accuracy, and in such cases the district may direct the per- 
formance of specific acts by the trustees, or authorize them to incur 
such expenses as may be necessary to the accomplishment of a particu- 
lar object to be specified, and the trustees are then authorized by § 109, 
chap. 480 of 1847, No. 117, to raise such amount by tax upon the dis- 
trict, in the same manner as if the definite sum to be raised had been 
voted. This provision was held in 4 Denio, 248, to cover a case Avhere 
the trustees were directed to build a house of specified dimensions and 
to let the job of building to the lowest bidder, which had the efi'ect of 
restricting the expense to a less sum than four hundred dollars; and the 
court say that " if the district had left the whole to the discretion of 
the trustees, and they had kept within the four hundred dollars, the act 
would have authorized the raising of the money. {^See also 5 Hill, 44, 
and Digest, ante, p. 50.) It was held by Supt. Young that the inhabi- 
tants of a district may legally vote a tax to enlarge their school-house, 
notwithstanding it may already have cost $400, without a certificate 
from the town superintendent. This general delegation of authority 
should, however, be resorted to only in cases of necessity. 

It was held (24 Wend., 266) that the direction in the vote of a tax 
for repairs, that the collection was to be postponed until the repairs were 
done, did not invalidate the resolution or the tax, the tax list being 
made out thirty days after the vote. 

6. To alter, repeal and modify their proceedings from time to time, as 
occasion may require : The power to repeal proceedings must be exerted 
before they have been carried into efi'ect, so that other parties have 
acquired rights or incurred responsibilities under them. Thus, where a 
tax list and warrant had been made out but not delivered to the collector, 
the inhabitants were held to have the power to rescind the vote imposing 
the tax (4 Hill, 109), but not where the greater part had been collected. 
(4 Barb., 25.) Where trustees have made a contract under the authority 
of the district, it is in efi'ect the contract of the district, and it is beyond 
its power to rescind the contract by repealing the resolution in pursuance 

[Code.] 29 



226 POWERS OF DISTRICT MEETINGS. 

of which it was made. A full release of damages from all persons 
having acquired any right of action, or the restoration of things to the 
same condition as they were in when a resolution was passed, might give 
the district the right to repeal or modify it. 

Any resolution directly or necessarily repugnant to a previous one 
repeals it; and the rule in relation to statutes is laid down (3 How,,. 
U. S. JR., 636), that if a subsequent statute be not repugnant in all, its 
provisions to a prior one, yet if the latter statute was clearly intended- 
to prescribe the only rule that should govern in the case provided for, 
. it repeals the prior one. As repeals by implication are not favored by 
the courts, it is advisable that a resolution should be repealed in express 
terms, where such is the intention. When this is proposed at the same , 
meeting (including adjourned sessions thereof) at which the resolution 
was passed, it is usually by a motion for reconsideration. The general 
parliamentary rule is, that the motion to reconsider can only be made by 
a person who voted with the successful side upon the question to be 
reconsidered. The reason of the rule is, that but for it the members in 
the minority might exhaust the time of the meeting fruitlessly; for it is 
to be presumed that the vote will be the same, unless the contrary is 
shown by some person who voted with the majority indicating a change 
of mind. It was held {JDigest, ante, p. 90) that this rule does not 
prevail in a district meeting unless the meeting adopts it. In that case 
the majority of the meeting chose to disregard it. Nevertheless it is a 
very proper rule of order to be applied by the chairman, subject to 
a reversal on an appeal to the meeting from his decision ; when, if a 
majority wish to reconsider, they can indicate it by overruling him. If 
a motion to reconsider is carried, the resolution to which it relates is 
open to amendment, and, if not again passed in its original or an amended 
form, is rejected. If, without taking the question on the original reso- 
lution a second time, the meeting separates for an adjourned session, it 
may then be called up and adopted or rejected. 

The unqualified repeal of a repealing statute revives the original 
enactment. This rule was applied, in 2 Denio, 233, to a vote on the 5th 
December, repealing a vote of Nov. 25th, which latter repealed the. 
vote for a tax, passed Oct. Yth, and it was held that the vote for a tax 
. was renewed on the 5th December, though a tax list made out under 
the original vote fell to the ground, and a new one was required to be 
made after December 5th. 

It is obvious that the meeting cannot do, under the form of recon- 
sidering or modifying a former proceeding, what it could not do directly ; 



POWERS OF DISTRICT MEETINGS. 221 

and therefore, thougli it may rescind a resolution designating or 
changing a site [Digest, ante, p. 64), it cannot adopt a new one, unless it 
was called, or be an adjourned meeting which was called, by a special 
notice for that purpose. 

7. To vote a tax for the purchase of a book for the purpose of 
recording the proceedings of their respective districts : The importance 
of full and exact records of district proceedings cannot well be exagge- 
rated. They ought to be so kept as to show upon their face every fact 
of which it might be necessary to give evidence in a suit at law, in order 
to establish the validity of every resolution adopted. For example, the 
order of the trustees for calling a meeting, the return of the clerk 
showing upon whom and in what manner he had served notice, the 
consent of the school commissioner or supervisor when required to 
authorize a proceeding, might much better be engrossed in the book of 
records, in the first instance, than left to rest upon the uncertain custody 
of loose pieces of paper. It may be necessary to prove the facts at a 
remote period of time ; and the way to avoid controversy in respect to 
them is always to act upon the presumption that controversy will arise, 
and to prepare the evidence, in advance, to meet it. The habit of doing 
this will of itself do much to preclude all opportunity for cavil. 

It is always desirable that the records should show who was present 
and took part in the proceedings of each meeting. For this purpose 
the orderly method of proceeding would be for the clerk (or person 
oflBciating as such), immediately after the organization of the meeting, to 
read the order under which it was called, and the list from his return 
of the persons on whom he served notice, requesting each one present to 
answer as his name is read ; noting, upon the minutes : " On reading the 
clerks' return of the inhabitants on whom he had served notice, the 
followittg were found to be present, viz : Abraham Jackson,, Abraham 
Jackson, Jr., &c., &c." At an annual meeting, for which no personal 
service of notice is necessary, the clerk could call the roll from a list 
of the inhabitants alphabetically arranged. In either case he should 
note on the minutes the presence of every voter, aJthoagh no notice had 
been served upon him. 

If any person offering to vote is challenged, the fact should be noted 
in the minutes, and also whether he made or declined making the 
declaration required by law. This is important,, because no person will 
be permitted to question the proceedings of a meeting on the ground of 
the illegality of a vote, if he stood by and saw it offered without 
objection, unless he shows himself to have been ignorant of the facts whieli 



228 POWERS OF DISTRICT MEETINGS. 

would have required him to object. Nor will the illegality of the vote 
be regarded unless it affected the result, and, therefore, it is highly 
desirable that the minutes should show how each person voted on each 
proposition submitted to the meeting. The christian names of the 
voters should be given, and not merely their initials. 

It is proper, but not legally necessary, that the minutes should be read 
over to the meeting, for its approval or correction, if need be, before the 
adjournment. In order to enable the clerk to do this, all resolutions 
should be reduced to writing before the question upon them is taken. 

As the cost of a little paper is of the most trifling consequence in 
comparison with the advantages of having a neat and accurate history of 
district proceedings in a shape for convenient consultation, it would be 
well for each district to provide a book of records, of at least foolscap 
size, firmly bound, and containing a sufficient number of pages to contain 
ample records for a series of years. 

8. With the consent of the [school commissioner] of the town, to 
designate sites for two or more school-houses for such district, and lay a 
tax on the taxable property in such district to purchase or lease such 
sites, and to hire, build or piirchase such school-houses, and to keep in 
repair and furnish the same with necessary fuel and appendages, and 
may also in their discretion lay a tax, not exceeding twenty dollars in 
any one year, to purchase maps, globes, black-boards and other school 
apparatus : The provision for more than one site and school-house is 
intended to obviate the inducements to a division of districts. There 
are great advantages in large and populous districts ; and it has always 
been the policy of the department to discourage their division, unless it 
becomes necessary on account of the great distance which children are 
compelled to travel in going to school. It may often be convenient to 
have a school-house for very young children separate from that attended 
by those more advanced. In cases of dissatisfaction with a teacher, 
there is the opportunity for parents to exercise a choice, vvithout the 
serious injury to the course of instruction which results from with- 
drawing their children entirely from the public schools. It may 
frequently be profitable to hire temporarily a building or rooms for 
an additional school-house, where there is not such an absolute necessity 
for it as would prompt the trustees to exercise that power under § 120, 
chap. 480 of 184Y, posi. No. 148, without the vote of the district. 

It is to be remembered that, however many school-houses or teachers 
there may be in the district, the attendants in all constitute but one 
school. {^See p. 12Q, ante.) 



POWERS OF DISTRICT MEETINGS. 229 

The principal facts in geography are learned better by the eye than 
in any other manner, and there ought to be in every school room a map 
of the world, of the United States, of this state and of the county. 
Globes, also, are desirable, but not so important as maps. Large black- 
boards, in frames or plaster, are indispensable to a well conducted school. 
The operations in arithmetic, performed on them, enable the teacher to 
ascertain the degree of the pupils' acquirements better than any result 
exhibited on slates. He sees the various steps taken by the scholar, and 
can require him to give the reason for each. It is in fact an exercise 
for the entire class ; and the whole school, by this public process, insen- 
sibly acquires- a knowledge of the rules and operations in this branch 
of study. 

Cards, containing the letters of the alphabet or words, may be useMly 
hung up in the room. Indeed, the whole apparatus provided by Mr. 
Holbrook and others is eminently calculated to facilitate the acquisi- 
tion of knowledge and to render it agreeable. 

There is some difficulty in limiting definitively the meaning of the 
words school apparatus. Few would hesitate to admit that a copy of 
Webster's Dictionary, or an atlas for reference by teacher and pupils, 
came fairly within the intent of the statute. If the inhabitants should 
deem it proper to furnish, by tax, text books to be used by the pupils in 
school, after it had provided the articles specifically named in the 
statute, it would not appear an unreasonable exercise of their discretion. 

No. 96. No tax to be voted by a district meeting, for build- 
ing, hiring or purchasing a school-house, shall exceed the sum 
of four hundred dollars, unless the [school commissioner] of 
the town in which the school-house is to be situated shall 
Certify in writing his opinion that a larger sum ought to be 
raised, and shall specify the sum, in which case a sum not 
exceeding the sum so specified shall be raised ; and in districts 
composed of parts of several towns, the certificate of a major 
part of the [school commissioners] of said towns shall be 
necessary for such purpose. {Sec. 70, chap. 480 of 1847, modi- 
Jied in conformity to No. 65.) 

It is the tax that is limited to $400, not the expense of building the 
house, which may include, in addition, the avails of the sale of the 
former house and site. So much of the decision on page 31 Digest, ante, 
as seems to conflict with this has been expressly overruled. If, after the 
expenditure of |400 in building the house, the tax is found insufficient 



230 POWERS OF DISTRICT MEETINGS. 

to finish it, the commissioner may certify that the further sum necessary, 
specifying it, ought to be raised, and the inhabitants may vote a tax for 
the amount so certified. {Com. School Z)ec,, 258.) If this additional 
amount prove insufiicient, the commissioner may again certify and the 
inhabitants vote a further tax. {Id., 340.) 

The commissioner whose certificate is to be obtained is the one hav- 
ing jurisdiction of the town in which the school-house is to he erected. 
The law forbids the division of a town in forming an assembly district 
or in dividing a county into school commissioners' sections. Section 40, 
chap. 480 of 1847, also provides that "no school-house shall be erected 
60 as to stand on the division lines of any two or more towns." This pro- 
vision remains in full force, though the residue of that section has become 
obsolete. The statute is nevertheless peremptory in requiring the cer- 
tificate of a major part of the commissioners having jurisdiction in the 
several towns of which a joint district includes any part. In such a 
case it is necessary to the validity of a tax, exceeding $400, not only 
that a majority of the commissioners should certify, but that the com- 
missioner having jurisdiction of the town in which the school-house is 
to be situated should be one of that majority. 

The limitation of this section applies only to the school-house. The 
amount of tax which may be voted for purchase or lease of site, and for 
repairs, furniture, fuel and appendages, is left wholly to the discretion of 
the district. {See Digest, ante, p. 4:1.) 

No. 97. Whenever a majority of all the taxable inhabitants 
of any school district, to be ascertained by taking and record- 
ing the ayes and noes of such inhabitants attending at any 
annual, special or adjourned school district meeting legally 
called or held, shall determine that the sum proposed and 
provided for in the next preceding section shall be raised by 
instalments, it shall be the duty of the trustees of such dis- 
trict, and they are hereby authorized, to cause the same to be 
levied, raised and collected in equal annual instalments, in 
the same manner and with the like authority that other school 
district taxes are raised, levied and collected, and to make out 
their tax list and warrant for the collection of such instal 
ments, as they become payable, according to the vote of the 
said inhabitants, but the payment or collection of the last 
instalment shall not be extended beyond five years from the 
time such vote was taken ; and no vote to levy any such tax 
shall be reconsidered except at an adjourned, general or special 
meeting, to be held within thirty days thereafter, and the 



POWERS OF DISTRICT MEETINGS. 231 

game majority shall be required for reconsideration as is 
required to levy such tax. {Sec. 71, chap. 480 of 1847.) 

No other tax can be raised by instalments under this section than one 
for building, hiring or purchasing a school-house, and in that case only 
when it exceeds $400. [Digest, ante, pp. 19 mid 99.) The instalments 
must be equal and annual, and cannot be distributed in unequal amounts, 
or with any other interval between successive ones than a year. [See 
Digest, ante, pp. 67, 68, for an exposition of the vote required to direct 
the levy of a tax by instalments.) A majority of the voters present may 
(with the certificate of the commissioner) lay the tax to be collected 
immediately, but it is required that they should also constitute a 
majority of the taxable inhabitants attending for the purpose of direct- 
ing the manner of its collection by instalments. 

The general practice has been, and it is believed to accord best with 
the intent of the statute, for the trustees to make out their tax list for 
the first instalment upon the taxable property as it then exists, and for 
their successors to make separate tax lists each year thereafter upon the 
taxable property as it exists at the time the instalments respectively 
become payable. Persons may thus become subject to the tax who had 
no m-eans of resisting its imposition ; but the erection of a school is to 
be regarded as a permanent benefit to the district, and they voluntarily 
assume the burden of paying for it by becoming inhabitants. It would 
seem necessary that the warrant for the collection of the last instalment 
should be returnable within five years from the time of taking the vote, 
and therefore that the tax list for it should be made out at least thirty 
days before that time. 

The sum of |100, with interest at seven per cent, may be paid by 
two annual instalments of 155.30.9 each; by three of 138.10.5 ; by four 
of |29.o2.3 ; by five of $24.38.9. In order to provide for the payment 
of any sum, with the interest on it at seven per cent, in equal annual 
instalments, the sum must be multiplied by the decimal fraction 
.55309179 for two years, .38105168 for three, .29522812 for four, or 
.24389069 for five, the first instalment being in each case payable at 
the expiration of a year from the time to which the computation relates. 

No. 98. Whenever a school-house shall have been built or 
purchased for a district, the site of such school-house shall 
not be changed, nor the building thereon be removed, as long 
as the district shall remain unaltered, unless by the consent, 
in veriting, of the [supervisor] of the town or towns within 



232 POWERS OF DISTRICT MEETINGS. 

which such district shall be situated, stating that in their 
opinion such removal is necessary ; nor then, unless a majority 
of all the taxable ir^habitants of said district, to be ascertained 
by taking and recording the ayes and noes at a special meeting 
called for that purpose, shall be in favor of such new sitOi 
{Sec. 73, chap. 480 of 1847, modified in conformity to No. 56, 
ante.) 

Any alteration of the territory of the district, however trifling, made 
subsequent to the building or purchase of a school-house, dispenses with 
the necessity of the consent of the supervisor to authorize a district 
meeting to change the site of that school-house [Digest, ante, p. 98), 
but no change of the inhabitants constitutes an alteration unless accom- 
panied by a change of boundaries. 

The site may be changed, so far as the prohibition of this section 
affects the question, at any time before a school-house standing thereon 
shall have been built or purchased. [Com. School Dec, 182.) But after 
the site has been purchased, or the trustees have made themselves 
legally responsible by a valid contract to purchase it, in pursuance of a 
resolution of the district, it becomes an established site, so that the 
resolution cannot be rescinded, under the general principle that a resolu- . 
tion which has been executed cannot be revoked to the prejudice of 
those who have acquired rights under it. ( See Digest, ante, p. 76, and 
comments under sixth clause of No. 89.) In such case, therefore (unless 
an intermediate alteration of the district has taken effect), the assent of 
the supervisor is requisite to change the site, or that of the commis- 
sioner to procure an additional one. 

If the title to a site fails, the designation of a new one is not to be 
regarded as a change of site. [Digest, ante, p. 62.) The resolution in 
such case should recite the fact that the district is destitute of a site, in 
consequence of its title to one formerly occupied having failed by the 
termination of a lease, judgment in an action of ejectment, or whatever 
other circumstance may have brought it to an end. 

The majority requisite to a change of site is a majority of those pre- 
sent and voting, as ascertained by taking and recording the ayes and 
noes at a special meeting called for that purpose. [ Digest, ante, p. 65 ; 
4 Grattan, 530.) 

The certificate of the supervisor is to state that in his opinion a removal 
or change of site is necessary and that he consents to such removal. The 
intent of the statute is to render his certificate necessary to give the 
meeting jurisdiction of the subject of a change of site, but not to give 



POWERS OF DISTRICT MEETINGS. 233 

him a negative upon the selection which it may make of a new site. It 
is not for him to assent or dissent to a removal to any particular loca- 
tion, but only to guard the district from being put to trouble by frivo- 
lous agitation of the subject, where, in his judgment, there is no such 
inconvenience in the existing location as to justify a change. 

In a joint district, composed of parts of two towns, both the supervi- 
sors must unite in the certificate ; if composed of three or more, the 
case comes under the provision of § 2Y, title lY, chap. 8, part 3, of the 
Revised Statutes : " Whenever any power, authority or duty is confided 
by law to three or more persons, and whenever three or more persons 
are authorized or required by law to perform any act, such act may be 
done, and such power, authority or duty may be exercised and performed 
by a majority of such persons or ofiicers, upon a meeting of all the per- 
sons or officers so entrusted or empowered, urdess special provision is 
otherwise made." 

The act in this case being of a judicial character, all must meet and 
confer, but a majority may decide. The certificate should state that all 
met. 

No. 99. Whenever the site of a school-house shall have 
been changed, as herein provided, the inhabitants of the dis- 
trict entitled to vote, lawfully assembled at any district 
meeting, shall have power, by a majority of the votes of those 
present, to direct the sale of the former site or lot, and the 
buildings thereon and appurtenances, or any part thereof, at 
such price and upon such terms as they shall deem most 
advantageous to the district ; and any deed duly executed by 
the trustees of such district, or a majority of them, in pursu- 
ance of such direction, shall be valid and effectual to pass all 
the estate or interest of such school district in the premises, 
intended to be conveyed thereby, to the grantee named in 
such deed ; and when a credit shall be directed to be given 
upon such sale for the consideration money, or any part thereof, 
the trustees are hereby authorized to take, in their corporate 
name, such security, by bond and mortgage or otherwise, for 
the payment thereof as they shall deem best, and shall hold 
the same as a corporation, and account therefor, to their suc- 
cessors in oifice and to the district, in the manner they are 
now required by law to account for moneys received by them ; 
and the trustees of any such district for the time being may, 
in their name of office, sue for and recover the moneys due 
and unpaid upon any security so taken by them or their pre- 

[CODE.] 30 



234 POWERS OF DISTRICT MEETINGS. 

decessors in office, with interest and cost. {Sec. 74, chap. 480 
of 1847.) 

Neither the trustees nor the inhabitants have any power to sell land 
belonging to the district, unless it be the site of a school-house, for 
which a new one has been substituted. 

If any credit is to be given upon the sale, the inhabitants in district 
meetings should, by resolution, specify the exact terms thereof, and 
should also fix the lowest price to be accepted. When a bond and 
mortgage are executed, they should run, to " A. B., C. D. and E. F,, 
trustees of school district No. , in the town of , and their 

successors in oflSce or assigns." 

The trustees become personally responsible to the district for the 
amount bid at the sale as for so much cash received, unless they take a 
bond and mortgage or some other security. This implies some pledge 
or obligation collateral and in addition to the personal responsibility of 
the purchaser, such as the signature of a solvent indorser or surety to 
a promissory note, in accepting which they are responsible for the same 
care which a prudent person would exercise in taking security for a debt 
due to himself. 

No. 100. All moneys arising from any sale made in pursu- 
ance of the last preceding section shall be appropriated to 
the payment of the expenses incurred in procuring a new site 
and in removing or erecting a school-house, or either of them, 
so far as such application thereof shall be deemed necessary. 
{Sec. 75, chap. 480 of 1847.) 

If the money is not necessary to pay for a new site or removing or 
erecting a school-house, it may be appropriated by the district to any 
purpose for which it would be authorized to levy a tax ; and in the 
absence of any vote by the district the trustees may appropriate it to 
any purpose, such as the purchase of fuel, the exemption of indigent 
inhabitants from rate bills, or the rent of temporary school rooms, for 
which they are authorized to levy a tax without a vote of the district. 

No. 101. Where, by reason of the inability to collect any 
tax or rate bill, there shall be a deficiency in the amount 
raised, the inhabitants of the district in district meeting shall 
direct the raising of a sufficient sum to supply such deficiency 
by tax, or the same shall be collected by rate bill, as the case 
may require. {Sec. 84, chap. 480 of 1847.) 



POWERS OF DISTRICT MEETINGS. 235 

The inability to collect a tax or rate bill is to be ascertained from tbe 
return of the collector, under oath^ containing an account of the sums 
remaining unpaid, and testifying that after diligent efforts he has been 
unable to collect the same. The inhabitants have the right, and should 
in general exact such evidence, but it is in their power to waive it. 
{Digest, ante, p. 19.) The taxes authorized by this section are not to 
be confounded with that for the amount of exemptions in a rate bill, 
which it is the duty of the trustees to collect by tax without the action 
of a district meeting, and which must be certified before the issuing of 
their warrant, and consequently before any effort to collect. 

The last clause, " or the same shall be collected by rate bill," must be 
construed as relating to the duty of trustees. It would seem to be very 
clear that where there is an inability to collect a rate bill, by reason of 
the poverty of the individual against whom it has been made, it is a case 
which requires a tax. 

No. 102. The taxable inhabitants of each school district in 
the state shall have power, when lawfully assembled at any 
district meeting, to lay a tax on the district, not exceeding 
ten dollars in any one year, for the purchase of a district 
library consisting of such books as they shall in their district 
meeting direct, and such further sum as they may deem 
necessary for the purchase of a book case. The intention to 
propose such tax shall be stated in the notice required to be 
given of such meeting. {Sec. 133, cha/p. 480 of 1847.) 

Section 135 of the act of 1847, following chap. 80 of 1835, from 
which it was taken, directs that " the taxes authorized by the foregoing 
section shall be assessed and collected in the same manner as a tax for 
building a school-house." 

The books to be purchased by tax under this section are such as the 
district meeting shall direct, while those purchased by the library money 
apportioned to the district are selected by the trustees. The meeting 
may adopt such regulations as it deems proper for the management of 
so much of the library as is purchased by a district tax, while the gene- 
ral regulations in respect to those bought by money received from the 
state are prescribed by the State Superintendent. 

A special notice of the intention to propose a tax for such purpose 
is necessary to give the meeting power to lay one for the purchase of 
a library or book case. 



236 POWERS OF DISTRICT MEETINGS. 

No. 103. * * * * Whenever the number of volumes in the 
district library of any district, numbering over fifty children 
between the ages of five and sixteen years, shall exceed one 
hundred and twenty-five, or of any district numbering fifty 
children or less, between the said ages, shall exceed one hun- 
dred volumes, the inhabitants of the district qualified to vote 
therein may, at a special or annual meeting duly notified for 
that purpose, by a majority of votes appropriate the whole 
or any part of the library money belonging to the district for 
the current year to the purchase of maps, globes, black-boards 
or other scientific apparatus for the use of the school ; and 
in every district having the required number of volumes in 
the district library, and the maps, globes, black-boards and 
other apparatus aforesaid, the said moneys, with the approba- 
tion of the State Superintendent, may be applied to the pay- 
ment of teachers' wages. {Sec. 136, chap. 480 of .1847.) 

The act of 1851, which prescribed the ages of four and twenty-one 
years as those within which children are to be enumerated as pupils, did 
not amend the preceding section. In order, therefore, to authorize a 
district to apply its library money to the purchase of scientific apparatus, 
or, with the approbation of the State Superintendent, to paying teachers' 
wages, it must number over fifty children between the ages of Jive and 
sixteen, and actually have in its library over one hundred and twenty- 
five volumes, or over one hundred volumes if the number of children 
between those ages be less than fifty. The mere fact that the district 
has at some previous time possessed the requisite number of volumes is 
not sufiicient. 

On making an application to the State Superintendent, the facts must 
be proved by an afBdavit, stating the number of children, the number 
of volumes actually in the library, and enumerating what maps, globes 
and other scientific apparatus have been procured and are actually in 
use in the school. 

The vote of a district and the permission of the State Superintendent 
relate only to the application of library money for the current year, and 
must be annually renewed to justify any diversion of it from the purchase 
of books. 

No. 104. The trustees chosen at the first legal meeting of 
any school district shall be divided by lot into three classes, 
to be numbered one, two and three ; the term of office of the 
first class shall be one year, of the second two, of the third 



POWERS OF DISTRICT MEETINGS. 23 Y 

three ; and one trustee only shall thereafter annually be 
elected, who shall hold his office for three years and until a 
successor shall be duly elected or appointed. In case of a 
vacancy in the office of either of the trustees, during the period 
for which he or they shall have been respectively elected, the 
person or persons chosen or appointed to such vacancy shall 
hold the office only for the unexpired term. ( Sec. 63, chap. 
480 0/1847.) 

Prior to 1843, all the trustees were chosen annually, and held their 
office for but one year. By sec. 12, chap. 133 of that year, the mode 
of election and tenure of office were changed to the mode and tenure 
above prescribed. The intent of the statute is, that one trustee shall 
go out of office by regular expiration of his term, and a successor be 
chosen in his place at each annual meeting. As another vacancy may 
exist at the same time, caused by death, removal or other cause than 
expiration of term — which vacancy may have been temporarily filled 
by appointment — the statute prescribes that the person elected to fill 
such vacancy shall hold only for the unexpired term, so that the power 
of filling the office for three full years shall return to the inhabitants at 
the same time, as if no vacancy had occurred otherwise than by the 
expiration of a full term. 

No. 105. The clerk, trustees, collector and librarian of each 
school district shall hold their respective offices until the 
annual meeting of such district next following the time of 
their appointment. ( Sec. 76, chap. 480 of 1847, as amended by 
sec. 3, chaj). 382 o/1849.) 

It is a familiar rule of interpretation, that one part of a statute must 
be so construed by another that the whole may, if possible, stand. To 
apply this rule, the word appointment, in the preceding section, must be 
construed as used in contradistinction to election by the inhabitants. 
Otherwise the section would be entirely inconsistent with the preceding, 
as making the term of trustees but one year instead of three. It is to 
be understood, then, as meaning that in case of appointment of a trustee 
by the supervisor, or a clerk, collector or librarian by the trustees, the 
person so appointed holds to the next annual meeting, when, in the case 
of a trustee, the residue of the unexpired term, temporarily filled by the 
appointment, is to be filled by election. 



238 POWERS OF DISTRICT MEETINGS. 

No. 106. In case the office of trustee shall be vacated by 
the death, refusal to serve, removal out of the district, or 
incapacity of any such officer, and the vacancy shall not be 
supplied by a district meeting within one month thereafter, 
the [supervisor] of the town may appoint any person residing: 
in such district to supply such vacancy. {Sec. 17, chap. 480 
of 1847, modified in conformity to No. 56, ante. ) 

The power of the supervisor under this section, and of trustees under 
the next, to fill vacancies, is confined strictly to vacancies resulting from, 
the causes above specified. They are not to assume to set aside au 
election on the ground of a legal incapacity existing at the time, and 
which the voters disregarded. [Digest, ante, p. 45.) They must,:: 
from the necessity of the case, adjudicate upon the question of fact; 
whether a vacancy exists, and, in the written order making an appoint- 
ment, should expressly state the facts which have caused a vacancy. 
See Digest {ante, pp. 51, 53), for cases of disability in fact to discharge 
the duties of an office constituting good cause for declaring it vacant. 

A refusal to serve is not the defective performance or omission of a 
particular act, but a general non-performance of the duties of the ofiice. 
(6 Cowen, 479.) 

No. 107. In case of a vacancy in the office of school district 
clerk, collector or librarian, for any of the causes mentioned 
in the next preceding section, such vacancy may be supplied 
by appointment, under the hands of the trustees of the district 
or a majority of them, and the persons so appointed shall 
hold their respective offices until the next annual meeting of 
the district, and until others are elected in their places. 
( Sec. 78, chap. 480 of 1847.) 

It is the design of the statute that officers shall hold over after the 
expiration of their term, so that the public interests shall not suffer for 
the want of a person competent and responsible for the discharge of 
every official duty. The office becomes vacant for the purpose of 
giving the inhabitants the power to elect ; but, until they have done so, 
is not vacant, as to the power to discharge its duties. 

The trustees should not reappoint a person who has refused to accept 
or to serve, or whose resignation has been accepted. The statute regards 
the penalty under the next section as an equivalent for the service. (11 
John., AZI ; Digest, ante, p. 2.) 



POWERS OF DISTRICT MEETINGS. 239 

No. 108. Every person duly chosen or appointed to any 
such office, who, without sufficient cause, shall refuse to serve 
therein, shall forfeit the sum of five dollars ; and every person so 
chosen or appointed, and not having refused to accept, who 
shall neglect to perforai the duties of his office, shall forfeit 
the sum of ten dollars. {Sec. 79, chap. 480 o/1847.) 

These penalties are (by No. 53, aiite) to be sued for by the super- 
visor, and their collection reported to the commissioner. They belong 
to the district for refusing to serve which they were incurred. What 
is sufficient cause for a refusal to serve is a question that must be deter- 
mined by. the tribunal in which the action is brought. The law regards 
ev«ry person as under an obligation to bear his part in the burden of 
personal service to the public, or to indemnify it by a fine. Mere 
unwillingness to abstract the necessary time from the labors of his ordi- 
nary calling is not a sufficient cause ; it is for him to determine whether 
the payment of the fine, or the injury to his business, or love of ease, 
will be the greater damage, and to meet the one or the other according 
to his election. The presumption is that, if sufficient cause existed, the 
supervisor would have accepted the resignation of the officer who is 
sued ; and it lies upon him to show the cause, not upon the plaintift' to 
disprove the existence of any. 

No. 109. Any person chosen or appointed to any such 
office may resign the same, by presenting his resignation to 
the [supervisor] of the town where such officer shall reside, 
who is authorized, for sufficient cause shown to him, to accept 
the same ; and the acceptance of such resignation shall be a 
bar to the recovery of either of the penalties mentioned in the 
preceding 'section. The [supervisor] accepting the resig- 
nation shall give notice thereof to the clerk or to one of the 
trustees of the school district to which the officer resigning 
shall belong. {Sec. 80, chap. 480 of 184:7, modified in conformity 
to No. 56.) 

In a joint district, a resignation can be accepted only by the super- 
visor of the town in which the officer resides ; though the courts will 
probably hold that the supervisors of all the towns, any part of which 
is included in the district, should unite in an action for the penalty 
under the preceding section. In such a case each of the supervisors 
should report the recovery of a judgment to the commissioner, men- 
tioning to whom it has been paid, who should be the supervisor of the 
town in which the school-house is situated. 



UO DUTIES OF DISTRICT CLERK. 



DUTIES OF DISTRICT CLERK. 

No. 110. It shall be the duty of the clerk of each school 
district : 

1. To record the proceedings of his district in a book to be 
provided for that purpose by the district, and to enter therein 
true copies of all reports made by the trustees of his district 
to the [school commissioner] ; 

2. To give notice of the time and place for special district 
meetings, when the same shall be called by the trustees of 
the district, to each inhabitant of such district liable to pay 
taxes, at least five days before such meeting shall be held, in 
the manner prescribed in the fifty-fifth section of this act 
{No. 82, a7ite); 

3. To affix a notice, in writing, of the time and place for 
any adjourned district meeting, when the same shall be 
adjourned for a longer time than one month, in at least four 
of the most public places of such district, at least five days 
before the time appointed for such adjourned meeting ; 

4. To give the like notice of every annual district meeting ; 

5. To keep and preserve all records, books and papers 
belonging to his office, and to deliver the same to his succes- 
sor in office ; and in case of his neglect or refusal so to do, he 
shall be subject to a fine of not exceeding fifty dollars. {Sec. 
81, chap. 480 of 1847, modified in conformity to No. 67.) 

The importance of full and accurate records has been sufficiently 
enforced in the comment upon the seventh clause of No. 89. A clerk 
who discharges his duty in this respect with neatness and fidelity will 
have an honorable memorial of himself to endure as long as the district 
exists. The entering of copies of the reports, annually made by the 
trustees to the school commissioner, is of consequence to preserve the 
history of the district affairs, and to afford the means of comparison 
with the annual accounts presented by the trustees to the district 
meeting. 

Too great care cannot be exercised in giving ample notice of every 
special meeting. The clerk is authorized to give such notices upon a 
verbal direction of the trustees [Digest, ante, p. 43); but there can 
be no excuse for the omission to put those directions in writing, upon 
the records, either in the form of an order or of minutes of the proceed- 
ings of a meeting of the trustees. In the personal service of notice, the 
clerk cannot act by deputy ; but no objection is perceived to his 



DUTY OF TRUSTEES. 241 

employing an agent to leave written notices at the houses of those 
whom he may find absent from home. The proper course, however, 
would be for the clerk to provide himself with a sufficient number of 
written notices before starting upon his rounds. In this way he would 
secure the giving of notice at the earliest practicable time, and would 
avoid the trouble of obtaining any other evidence of service than his 
own official return. The clerk is not at liberty to post notices of annual 
or adjourned meetings at any less number of public places than four. 
It would be well for him to have at least four places designated by a 
resolution of the inhabitants as the most public and proper for posting 
notices. In case of an adjourned meeting, it would be prudent to repeat 
in the notices posted the enumeration of the objects for which it was 
originally called, and to include any new proposition which may have 
been presented at the meeting. 

OF THE DUTY OF TRUSTEES OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS. 

No. 111. It shall be the duty of the trustees of every school 
district, and they shall have power : 

1. To call special meetings of the inhabitants of such 
districts liable to pay taxes, v^^henever they shall deem it 
necessary and proper ; 

2. To give notice of special, annual and adjourned meetings 
in the manner prescribed in the last preceding section, if 
there be no clerk of the district, or he be absent or incapable 
of acting ; 

3. To make out a tax list of every district tax voted by any 
such meeting, containing the names of all the taxable inhabi- 
tants residing in the district at the time of making out the 
list, and the amount of tax payable by each inhabitant, set 
opposite to his name ; 

4. To annex to such tax list a warrant, directed to the 
collector of the district, for the collection of the sums in such 
list mentioned ; 

5. To purchase or lease a site for the district school-house, 
as designated by a meeting of the district, and to build, hire 
or purchase, keep in repair and furnish such school-house 
with necessary fuel and appendages, out of the funds collected 
and paid to them for such purposes ; 

6. To have the custody and safe keeping of the district 
school-house ; 

7. To contract with and employ all teachers in the district ; 

[CODE.I 31 



' 242 DUTY OF TRUSTEES. 

8. To pay the wages of such teachers, when qualified, by- 
giving them orders on the [supervisors] for the public money 
belonging to their districts, so far as such moneys shall be 
sufficient for that- purpose, and to collect the residue of such 
wages from all persons liable therefor ; 

9. To divide the public moneys received by them, whenever 
authorized by a vote of their district, into not exceeding two 
portions for each year ; to assign and apply oneof such por- 
tions to each term during which a school shall be kept in 
such district, for the payment of the teacher's wages during 
such term ; and to collect the residue of such wages, not paid 
by the proportion of public money allotted for that purpose, 
from the person liable therefor, as above provided ; 

10. To exempt from the payment of the wages of teachers, 
either in part or wholly, such indigent persons within the 
district as they shall think proper, in any one quarter or 
term, and the same shall be a charge upon such district ; 

11. To certify such exemptions and deliver the certificate 
thereof to the clerk of the district, to be kept on file in his 
office ; 

12. To ascertain, by examination of the school lists kept by 
such teachers, the number of days for which each person not 
so exempted shall be liable to pay for instruction, and the 
amount payable by each person ; 

13. To make out a rate bill containing the name of each 
person so liable and the amount for which he is liable, and 
to annex thereto a warrant for the collection thereof ; 

14. To deliver such rate bill, with the warrant annexed, 
after the same shall have been made out and signed by 
them, to the collector of the district, who shall execute the 
same in like manner with other warrants directed by such 
trustees to such collector for the collection of district taxes. 
And the collector to whom any such rate bill and warrant 
shall be delivered for collection shall possess the same power, 
be entitled to the same fees, and subject to the same restrictions 
and liabilities, with their bail and sureties, as by this title is 
provided in proceedings to collect school district taxes. {Sec. 
82,cha.p. 480 of 1847, as amended by §§ 6 and 12, chap. 382 
of 1849.) 

Before entering upon the detailed examination of this very important 
section, by its several clauses, the general rule must be reiterated that 
every power committed to the trustees must he exercised by the whole 
board meeting and conferring at the same time and place, and not by 



DUTY OF TRUSTEES. 243 

one or two forming a determination and procuring the assent of the 
absent. The decision of the majority, under such circumstances^ is the 
decision of the trustees. The general rule is that the decision of a 
majority, or even of all three under other circumstances, is not the 
decision of the trustees, any more than the concurrent opinion of all 
the members of the legislature, arrived at by taking their separate votes 
. at their respective places of residence, is an act of the legislature. In 
the assessment of a tax, and in general in regard to every other duty 
judicial in its character, this rule is inflexible. 

In other cases a majority may decide, provided all have been notified 
of the intention to meet and confer upon the subject at a definite time 
and place. This rule was applied in 16 Maine R., 185,- and the dismis- 
sal of a teacher by two, a majority of the board, held illegal, because 
the third was not notified, although he was out of town. The court say : 
" That does not allow the majority to dispense with the rule requiring 
notice. They are not in such cases constituted the judges whether the 
notice would be eff'ectual to secure his attendance. Nor would it be 
entirely safe to entrust them with such a power, as it would afi'ord an 
opportunity to select an occasion when they might judge that a notice 
would be ineffectual, and thus, by neglecting to give it, free themselves 
from the presence of a dissenting minority. It may often happen that 
those will be able to attend who were believed to be so situated that 
their attendance could not be expected. Nor is there any difficulty in 
giving the requisite notice in such cases, as one left at the usual place 
of residence would be sufficient." 

The law goes upon the supposition that a majority may be convinced 
by a minority and change its determinations, and therefore will not 
suff'er the majority to act without giving the minority a notice to partici- 
pate. The legal presumption is that officers have thus acted, but this 
presumption may be repelled by evidence to the contrary. {^See Digest, 
pp. 82, 93, 95.) 

The case last cited admits that a merely ministerial duty, the execu- 
tion of a determination of the board, may be performed by a single 
trustee. [See also p. 88.) 

In case of a vacancy in the oflBce of trustee, those in office, whether 
two or one, possess all the powers of a full board [Digest, p. 15) ; the 
very first act, however, ought to be the call of a meeting to fill the 
i^acancy. 

We may proceed now to examine the powers of trustees as declared 
in the several clauses of the preceding section. 



244 DUTY OF TRUSTEES. 

1. To call special meetings of tlie inhabitants of such districts liable 
to pay taxes, whenever they shall deem it necessary and proper : Thia 
powers should be liberally exercised for the benefit of the district ; and 
the trustees should call special meetings whenever requested for any legal 
object by a respectable number of the inhabitants, notwithstanding the 
trustees may themselves be opposed to the object. The^ cases on pages 
8, 20 and 77 Digest, ante, will be found to speak very strongly on this 
point. If the inhabitants have repeatedly acted upon a subject in such 
a manner as to show that their determination has been definitively 
formed, and is not likely to be altered, it is not the duty of the trustees 
to be made the instruments of a factious minority, by harassing them 
with calls for special meetings to reconsider the matter. But except in 
such case, or when the purpose is clearly illegal, it is very much a matter 
of course that a meeting should be ordered by the trustees, or, in case 
of their refusal, by the State Superintendent. Application to him for 
this purpose must be upon notice to the trustees, in the manner and 
form of an appeal from their refasal. 

It is no objection to the call of a special meeting that a meeting 
having the same subject under consideration stands adjourned. {Digesty 
pp. 83. 98; see also 7 Metcalf, 509.) 

2. To give notice of special, annual and adjourned meetings in the 
manner prescribed in the last preceding section, if there be no clerk of 
the district, or he be absent or incapable of acting : This is a ministe- 
rial duty, which may be performed by one of the trustees,' under a 
resolution of the board, or they may divide the district into sections, 
assigning the duty of giving the notice in each to one of their number. 
This power should be exercised by them in the case of a refusal of the 
clerk to give a notice. It is believed they may in such case delegate 
the ministerial duty to any inhabitant, furnishing him with a written 
authority, under their hands, which can be exhibited to the inhabitants 
whom he personally notifies, and with written notices, signed hy the 
trustees, to be left at the houses of those whom he may find absent from 
home. 

3. To make out a tax list of every district tax voted by any such 
meeting, containing the names of all the taxable inhabitants residing in 
the district at the time of making out the list, and the amount of tax 
payable by each inhabitant set opposite to his name : In 4 Denio, 125, 
the supreme court held a warrant void where one of the trustees made 
out a tax list, and took the list and warrant to a second, who signed, 
but the other trustee was not consulted. In 3 Denio, 598, the court 



DUTY OF TRUSTEES. 245 

held an assessment void whicli was made and signed by two assessors, 
the third being present in the room where it was made, but not being 
consulted or taking any part in the business. This fact was permitted 
to be shown by the evidence of one of the assessors who acted, to repel 
the legal presumption that all had been consulted. The decision was 
affirmed by the court of appeals. (1 Comst., 79 ; see Digest, ante, p. 95.) 
The trustees should meet for the purpose of making out a tax list 
within ten days after the meeting at which the tax is voted, so that if it 
be necessary to resort to any other evidence than the last town assess- 
ment roll for the valuation of property, or if a reduction shall be claimed, 
they may give twenty days' notice, and complete the tax list at the 
•expiration of thirty days after the district meeting. It would be well 
for them to give notice at the district meeting of the time and place at 
which they will meet to make a tax list, so that any inhabitant conceiving 
himself entitled to a reduction may appear and be examined on oath in 
regard to it. The mode of proceeding in arriving at valuation and 
making the roll will be treated more at large in the comments upon a 
succeeding section. It is proper to remark here that the heading of 
every tax list should specify for what purposes and under what 
authority every sum included therein is levied. Whenever any contro- 
versy is anticipated in regard to any tax, it should be made on a separate 
list from others voted at the same meeting, so as not to embarrass or 
delay the collection of that which is undisputed. 

4. To annex to such tax list a warrant, directed to the collector of the 
district, for the collection of the sums in such list mentioned : The form 
of a warrant will be given in another place. The supreme court (18 
Barh., 331) have stated it as "remarkable that the school laws, as they 
now stand, contain no provision limiting or directing the time within 
which the warrant shall direct the collector to collect or return the war- 
rant." It is, however, clearly contemplated by the statute that the 
warrant shall mention a time within which it is to be executed, and the 
practice has been to fix it at thirty days, which was the period fixed by 
§ 100, chap. 480 of 1847, prior to the amendment made by § 5, chap. 
382 of 1849. It is better to conform to that practice than to fix any 
other period, unless in a case where it is palpable that an immediate 
collection is unnecessary, and the convenience of the tax payers is to be 
greatly promoted by a brief extension. 

5. To purchase or lease a site for the district school-house, as desig- 
nated by a meeting of the district, and to build, hire or purchase, keep 
in repair and farnish such school-house with necessary fuel and appen- 



246 DUTY OF TRUSTEES. 

dages, out of the funds collected and paid to them for such purpose : 
Tbis power is necessarily exclusive, A practice has grown up in some 
quarters of appointing a building committee by the district meeting to 
superintend the erection of a school-house. So far as a building com- 
mittee act in aid of the trustees, by their advice and personal service in 
carrying into execution the wishes of the inhabitants, under the direc- 
tion of the trustees, there is no objection. But the trustees alone have 
the power to bind the district by a contract, written or verbal, and the 
district cannot supersede them by a building committee or any other 
agents. (See Digest, pp. 17, 29 and 30, ante^ It is in the power of the 
inhabitants, through the agency of a committee or otherwise, to pro- 
cure plans and specifications, to the minutest detail, for a school-house or 
other mechanical structure in contemplation. They may in district meet- 
ing select among those thus procured, and may, by the resolution autho- 
rizing the building, limit the power to making a contract according to 
the plan and specifications adopted. This is the only method of con- 
trolling the discretion of the trustees in the matter. It rests with the 
trustees to accept or reject the work, unless the inhabitants, in the vote 
authorizing the building, have appointed or provided for the appoint- 
ing of other arbiters. This they may do by directing it to be inserted 
in the contract with the builder, that the suflBciency of the materials 
and workmanship under the contract shall be determined by persons 
named in the resolution, with the power to determine what sum shall 
be deducted as damages from the contract price, or to reject it wholly; 
or by nominating in the resolution an arbitrator on the part of the dis- 
trict, and requiring the builder to nominate another, with power to the 
two to choose an umpire in case of disagreement, such arbitrators to assess 
damages or reject the work entirely, and securing to the trustees in the 
latter case the right to remove the building from the site at the expense 
of the builder, unless he removes it himself upon notice to do so. 

A stringent contract, which should in all cases be in writing, with 
such provisions for the summary adjustment of any questions which may 
arise un"der it, will relieve the trustees from much personal responsibility 
and trouble, as well as protect the district from quarrels and litigation, 
which in any event are disastrous. 

6. To have the custody and safe keeping of the district school-house : 
The trustees are charged with the custody of the school-house for the 
purpose of public instruction; and it is their duty to exercise such a 
general supervision over its care and management as that the instruc- 
tion of the pupils in the school shall not be embarrassed by any use of 



DUTY OF TRUSTEES. 247 

the house other than for school purposes, and that the property of the 
district, and the furniture, books and papers belonging to the school or 
the pupils, shall not be destroyed or injured. Any use of the house in 
subordination to these restrictions, and not inconsistent with the main 
purposes for which it was designed, may be allowed by the trustees, 
with the general consent. [See Digest^ ante, p. 71.) In such cases, 
however, it would seem to be the duty of the trustees to require such a 
remuneration for the use as may be sufficient to clean the rooms, and to 
indemnify the district against casual damage and wear. There is no 
good reason why the expenses of the district should not be lightened 
by the trifling revenue derivable from the occasional use of its house, 
when not wanted for school purposes, and in a manner not to interfere 
with them. The trustees, however, cannot make any permanent con- 
tract for the occupation of the school-house. They can simply give a 
license, revocable at their own discretion, which they cannot by con- 
tract foreclose themselves from exercising as the public good may require 
at any moment. Strictly speaking, they can grant no right to use the 
district property for any other than educational purposes ; they can only 
by their acquiescence estop themselves from bringing an action for the 
act of entering the school-house, which would otherwise be a trespass. 
Nothing should be tolerated which may give occasion to a controversy 
among the inhabitants. 

As the custody of the building is vested in all the trustees, all have 
the right of visiting and inspecting it at all times, and a majority of the 
trustees cannot exclude the third. 

v. To contract with and employ all teachers in the districts : The 
power to contract for the district is a power to contract with such 
teachers only as the law authorizes the inhabitants to expect, teachers 
to the payment of whose wages public money may be applied in reduc- 
tion of their rate bills, that is, teachers possessing, at the time of making 
the contract, a regular and valid certificate of qualification. The 
inhabitants have no power to engage nor to discharge a teacher. [Digest, 
p. 38.) No one of them can demand from the teacher as a matter of 
right that the latter should exhibit his certificate. He has no means of 
knowing, when sending his children to school, whether he subjects 
himself to a rate bill for the whole cost of tuition, or whether it is to be 
defrayed in part by public money, except in the fact that the trustees 
are his agents for the purpose of employing qualified teachers and none 
others. It is a fraud upon the inhabitants to engage a teacher not then 
possessing a certificate^ without express notice to them that until he 



2^8 DUTY OF TRUSTEES. 

shall obtain one the school is to be in effect a private school. It is 
difficult to find any principle upon which the trustees can be authorized, 
by levying a rate bill, or any other official action, to provide for the 
payment of such a teacher. A public officer, to justify the execution 
of a statutory power, like that of issuing a warrant to levy upon the 
property of a citizen, is bound to prove that he has strictly pursued all 
the steps preliminary to the vesting of the power. The ministerial 
officer who executes the warrant is indeed protected by another rule, 
for if it is regular on its face he is not to inquire whether it may not 
be impeached by extrinsic facts. The question has not been passed upon 
by the courts, and it may be premature to say what influence the tolera- 
tion hitherto of the collection of rate bills for the wages of unqualified 
teachers may have upon their decision when it shall be presented. In 
the mean time the only mode for trustees to secure themselves against a 
dangerous personal responsibility is to meet as a board {Digest, p. 93) 
and insist upon the actual production of a certificate before contracting 
with a teacher. 

A practice has prevailed to a very considerable extent of trustees 
engaging with a teacher that he shall board with the parents of the 
children alternately. There is no authority for such a contract, and it 
cannot be enforced on the inhabitants. This compulsory boarding gives 
occasion to constant altercation and complaint, which often terminates 
in breaking up the school. The best arrangement is to give the teacher 
a specific sum and let him board himself. But there are some districts 
so destitute that it may afford the inhabitants considerable relief to be 
permitted to board the teacher. In such cases the object can be obtained 
in another way. Let the trustees contract with the teacher at a specific 
sum per week or month, and they may then agree with him that if he 
shall be afforded satisfactory board at the house of any of the inhabi- 
tants, he will allow whatever sum may be agreed on per week for such 
board, to be applied to his wages, and will give an order on the trustees 
for the amount to the person with whom he boards ; and the trustees 
may then accept such order from the inhabitants, as payment to that 
extent upon his tuition bill, and deduct it from the amount to be paid 
the teacher, after having paid him the whole of the public money. 

The amount of the compensation to be paid to teachers is within the 
discretion of the trustees exclusively. The inhabitants have no power 
to control them in this respect, or in the selection of the individuals to 
be employed, though the trustees would act most unwisely in disregard- 
ing their preferences and wishes, when reasonable and just. There is 



DUTY OF TRUSTEES. 249 

little danger that they will abuse their discretion in making the com- 
pensation too high. The wages of teachers are generally quite inade- 
quate, those of females scandalously so. It is a reproach to our civiliza- 
tion that a woman should earn less as a teacher than she might in a 
cotton mill or as a dressmaker, especially as the qualities of her sex 
admirably adapt her for the instruction of the young. Trustees may 
be very certain that in purchasing the services of a teacher, as in every 
other business transaction, the way to get a good article is to offer a fair 
price, and that the most wretched economy in the world is to employ 
a poor teacher. They would grudge no price to secure a skillful phy- 
sician to restore the bodily health and vigor of their own children. 
They would never commit a watch to a bungler, because he offered to 
tinker at it for slender pay ; what right have they to deal more stingily 
in selecting and paying the person who is to deal with an organization 
so much more delicate and intricate than a watch, as the minds and 
souls of the children of an entire community, and through whose igno- 
rance or error they may imbibe poison instead of nutriment or medicine ? 

The following is suggested as a proper form for a contract to be drawn 
up in duplicate, one copy to be filed with the district clerk, the other 
retained by the teacher, viz : 

A. B., having produced to the trustees of District No. , in the 

town of , a certificate (or diploma of Normal School) found 

in due form to license him to teach a common school in said district 
(as first assistant or in the primary department, as the case may be, if 
the certificate is limited ), is hereby engaged for the term of weeks, 
provided his certificate shall so long continue in force, to instruct the 
school of said district hours in each day, exclusive of Sundays and 

customary holidays, and except that on Saturdays he is to teach but 
hours, for the wages of dollars per week, ( whereof per week 

is to be paid by the boarding of said teacher in the families of such 
inhabitants as shall be from time to time designated by the trustees and 
shall be satisfactory to said teacher. ) 

The said A. B. faithfully performing his duties as such teacher, the 
trustees engage to exercise their legal powers in providing for the pay- 
ment of his wages aforesaid, by giving him orders on the supervisor 
(monthly, or as may be agreed) to the amount of , (so much of 

the public money appropriated to the term as may be apportioned to 
the teacher upon a fair division thereof among all the teachers employed 
at the same time) for his whole term of service, and in proportion for a 
less time, and at the expiration of the term, upon being furnished by 

[Code.] 32 



250 DUTY OF TRUSTEES. 

said teacher with entries of the number of days which the scholars 
attending school shall have respectively attended, verified by his oath, to 
make out the necessary rate bills and tax lists for the collection of the 
residue of his wages. 

Where a teacher was employed by one of the trustees only, after' 
consulting the others separately, and all three of the trustees sent 
children to the school, as did the district generally, it was held by the 
supreme court (15 Barb., 323) that having performed the agreement on 
her part she was entitled to recover the compensation, on the ground 
the action being brought on an executed contract, "that where a person is 
employed for a corporation by one assuming to act in its behalf, and 
goes on and renders the services according to the agreement, with the 
knowledge of its officers and without notice that the contract is not 
recognized as valid and binding, such corporation will be held to have 
sanctioned and ratified the contract. * * Where the contract is stiU 
executory, and nothing has been done under it, and the action is to 
recover damages merely for non-performance, it is for the plaintiff to 
show a legal contract, binding upon the corporation. But this is not 
that case." 

This is sufficient for the teacher while the consent lasts ;^ but the diffi- 
culty in respect to the trustees is, that those who have given' their 
consent in this irregular manner may revoke it and leave the one who 
made the contract personally liable to damages, without any claim to 
be indemnified by the district. [Digest, pp. 80, 82, 93 ante.) 

A teacher once employed cannot be dismissed, without some violation' 
of the contract on his part, during the time for which it was to continue. 
{Digest, pp. 10, 15, 36, ante^ A teacher who is so unfortunate a« to 
fail to give satisfaction to the inhabitants is still entitled to retain his 
place, unless it is forfeited by positive misconduct such as amounts to a- 
breach of the contract, or would justify the annulling of his certificate^ 
As to the remedy where the inhabitants withdraw their children from' 
school without reasonable cause, see Digest, ante, p. 47. It must be a- 
very clear case to authorise the application of so large a portion of the 
public money as in that instance to a single term. Difficulties of this' 
kind very seldom arise, except in consequence of a want of harmony 
among the trustees, or a wanton disregard by them of the wishes of their 
constituents. 

As to the employment of a trustee as teacher, see Digest, p. 99, The 
objections there stated have considerable force in reference to the 
employment of any near relative of a trustee. 



DUTY OF TRUSTEES. 251 

8. To pay tlie wages of such teachers, when qualified, by giving them 
orders on the [supervisor] for the public money belonging to their dis- 
trict, so far as such moneys shall be sufficient for that purpose ; and to 
collect the residue of such wages from all persons liable therefor : It 
wili be observed that this power is confined in express terms to the pay- 
ment of qualified teachers. To pay public money to any other is a 
misapplication of it, which renders the trustees personally liable to repay 
tie amount. [Com. School Dec, 213.) The public money apportioned 
for the year is to be exhausted in paying the teachers for services ren- 
dered during that year. {Digest, p. 48.) The year ends with the 31st 
of December, which is ordinarily in the middle of a term, and the 
whole of the public money of the year should be earned, and orders 
for it drawn, on or before that day. If it be exhausted previous to the 
commencement of the winter term, then an amount equal to the wages 
for so much of that term as precedes the first of January must be pro- 
vided by rate bill or other resources than the public money. The rate 
bill, however, is to be predicated upon the attendance during the whole 
term, and not merely upon that previous to January 1st. [Com. School 
Dec, 232.) 

The public money apportioned for teachers' wages can be applied to 
no other purpose whatever, and therefore an order drawn upon the 
supervisor should show upon its face that it is in compliance with the 
statute. The form may be as follows : 

To J. D., supervisor of the town of : 

Pay to A. B., or order, dollars cents, on account 

of wages earned by him when duly qualified as a teacher in District 
No. , in said town, between the day of September and the 

25th December, 1856. Dated Dec. 27, 1856. 

E. R, ■) 

^ -pv ( Trustees, 

g' H ' ) ■^**^- ^^• 

The wages of a teacher include the whole compensation allowed him 
for board, lodging or any other object. In drawing an order or a rate 
bill, any sum allowed for board, &c., should be denominated wages. 
The order can be drawn only in favor of the teacher. If he desires to 
apply the proceeds to the payment of a private debt for board or other 
consideration, he can endorse it to his creditor, but it is for him and not 
for the trustees to distribute his wages. {Digest, ante, p. 3.) 



,252 DUTY OF TRUSTEES. 

A teacher should be paid promptly. It is often a considerable hard- 
ship for him to wait for the collection of a rate hill, and when he has 
furnished a properly attested attendance list there can he no risk in the 
trustees advancing the money due him. (Digest, p. 105.) 

9. To divide the public moneys received by them, whenever authorized 
W a vote of their district, into not exceeding two portions for each 
year ; to assign and apply one of such portions to each term during 
which a school shall be kept in such district, for the payment of teach- 
ers' wages during such term, and to collect the residue of such wages 
not paid by the proportion of public money allotted for that purpose 
from the persons liable therefor, as above provided : Where the inhabi- 
tants have not made a division of the public money by resolution, the 
trustees have the power to make such division as they deem just and 
expedient. {Digest, ante, pp. 17, 48, 85.) There is a manifest propriety 
in determining what proportion of the public money shall be applied to 
a term, before the term begins, so that each inhabitant sending pupils 
to the school may know the extent of the liability to which he subjects 
himself to be assessed upon a rate bill. 

There are some difficulties inseparable from the fact that the statute 
recognizes but two terms in a year, while in practice there is one sum- 
mer term and parts of two winter terms. The increase of the public 
money to be distributed under the act of 1856 will render them more 
embarrassing. Perhaps the best method of obviating these will be to 
procure a vote of the inhabitants in district meeting, assigning a portion 
of the public money to each term; for example, one-third to the winter 
and one-third to the summer term, and leaving the residue to be applied 
by the trustees in their discretion. 

Strictly speaking, the only public moneys received by the trustees 
are those derived from the income of local funds, the tuition bills of 
non-residents, and other sources than the state treasury. All such 
moneys applicable to the payment of teachers' wages for the term are, 
by § 6, chap. 151 of 1851, required to be first applied before the balance 
to be raised by rate bill is ascertained. 

10. To exempt from the payment of the wages of teachers, either in 
part or wholly, such indigent persons within the district as they shall 
think proper, in any one quarter or term, and the same shall be a charge 
upon such district : The power of exemption under this clause is con- 
fined to indigent inhabitants of the district. It is to be exercised at 
the time of making out the rate bill for the term, and is operative only 
for that term. The trustees must, before issuing their warrant, deter- 



DUTY OF TRUSTEES. 253 

mine who are proper persons to be exempted. They have not the right 
to suspend the determination until the indigence of the party has been 
demonstrated by an unavailing effort to collect a rate bill by distraining 
his property. For such cases the law has made a different provision. 

In the exercise of this power the utmost liberality compatible with 
justice to the district should be indulged. [Digest^ ante, p. 31.) It is 
the right of every child to attend the district school, and no parent 
should be permitted to withhold him, either from doubt of his ability to 
meet a rate bill without inconvenience or from that pardonable pride 
of feeling which makes it humiliating to ask an exemption. The 
exemption is provided, not in the interest of the parent, but because the 
interest of the state requires that his children should be educated. It is 
for the trustees to seek them out and solicit their attendance. "Whenever 
they have reason to suspect that parents will refrain from sending them, 
from apprehension of a rate bill, they would better promote the objects 
of their appointment by removing this apprehension, and that in such a 
manner as not to wound the sensibilities of the parent by treating him 
as an object of charity, than by permitting the places of the children 
in the school to remain vacant. It is not to be forgotten that the poor, 
in giving up the time and personal services of their children, and pro- 
viding them with food and clothing while receiving instruction, make 
a contribution which is often larger, in proportion to their means, than 
the heaviest rate bill to a man in easy circumstances. Besides, suppose 
the parent is actuated by criminal penuriousness, the child deserves none 
the less to be protected from suffering on this account, and the state 
is not the less injured by his growing up an ignorant and therefore an 
unprofitable member of society. 

11. To certify such exemptions and deliver the certificate thereof to 
the clerk of the district to be kept on file in his ofiice : Not merely the 
fact, but the amount of the exemption in each case should be stated in 
the certificate, as the amount of such exemptions becomes a charg ^ upon 
the district, and the certificate is the evidence of the trustees' autho- 
rity to make out a tax list for the aggregate of such amounts. The 
following is a proper form : 

The undersigned, trustees of District No. , in the town of , 

hereby certify that at a meeting for that purpose, at which all were pre- 
sent {or at which A. B., having been duly notified, failed to attend), the 
following persons were exempted from the payment of teachers' wages, 



254 DUTY OF TRUSTEES. 

for the term ending on the day of , to the amounts set 

opposite to their respective names, viz : 

Names. Amount of exemptions. 

Peter Barney, $0 50 

Thomas Jones, 2 60 

JohnRadcliff, 1 84 

Dated this day of , 185V. 

A. B., ^ 

C. D., > Trustees. 

E. R, ) 

12. To ascertain, by examination of the school list kept by such 
teachers, the number of days for which each person not so exempted 
shall be liable to pay for instruction, and the amount payable by each 
person : The assessment to be made under this clause is for the purpose 
of making out a rate bill, and therefore relates only to inhabitants of 
the district. {Digest, ante, p. 101.) The school lists may include other 
persons, who have contributed or are bound to contribute to the funds 
of the district by the payment of tuition bills. The amount of such 
/contributions may or may not be graduated by the number of days' 
attendance, according to the contract made by the trustees for admit- 
ting them to the school. But as the rate bill is to be made out only 
for the balance required to pay teachers' wages, after applying the pub- 
lic moneys belonging to the district, and must be made out in propor- 
tion to the number of days and of children sent, and as non-residents 
have no interest in those public moneys, their dues for tuition are to be 
ascertained and collected otherwise than by rate bill. 

The method of making the assessment is first to add together the 
number of days and half days' attendance (reckoning two half days as 
one day) by each child belonging to the family of an inhabitant, or for 
whois: tuition an inhabitant of the district has made himself responsible. 
Thus, if one inhabitant has sent four children for 104 days, he will be 
charged for 416 days, and so on. Suppose, upon adding up the whole 
number of days thus ascertained, the total is found to be 4,000 for the 
average attendance of 40 scholars for the whole term, and that the 
amount due to the teachers, after applying the proportion of public 
money allotted to the term, local funds and tuition bills of non- 
residents applicable to teachers' wages, is $40 ; the proportion of $40 
due for one scholar for each day would be one cent ; and this multi- 
plied by the number of days each scholar attended would give his pro- 



BTJTY OF TRUSTEES. ,255 

portion ; and by adding the proportions of each belonging to the same 
feimily, the amount due from each person sending to school is ascer- 
tained. Some of these may be exempted under the previous clauses; 
and the aggregate of the amounts for which they are exempted is to be 
raised by tax on the property of the district. Those remaining, with 
the amounts found due from them respectively, are to be inserted in the 
rate bill. 

All the children of inhabitants attending the district school during 
the same term must be charged at the same rate per day for tuition, with- 
out regard to the studies they may pursue, or to the department, room 
or school-house in which they may attend, or to the fact that the teachers 
employed in their instruction may receive very different rates of com- 
pensation, or that one teacher may have been employed for one portion 
of the term and one or more others for the remainder. There is to be 
no discrimination in the rate bill except that resulting from the number 
of days and of children sent. (Com. School Dec, p. 208.) This rule 
does not apply to non-residents, who may be charged in proportion to 
the cost of the instruction furnished them, as they would be at a private 
school. 

Nor does it apply where, after the close of the term, the same teacher 
continues without any intermission, in consequence of a prolongation of 
the period for which he was originally engaged. (See Digest, ante, p. 52.) 
The limits of a term should be fixed in advance, so that the inhabitante 
may know the extent of their responsibility. 

DiflSculties sometimes arise in respect to the liability of inhabitants 
for the tuition of persons in their employment or under their protection. 
The general rule is, that every head of a household must be supposed 
to direct the conduct of its members, and that he voluntarily assumes the 
legal responsibility growing out of their attendance upon a school. This 
presumption, however, does not always apply. Thus, where a person had 
from charitable motives taken a poor family to reside with him in his 
house, the children of which attended the district school, it was held 
that he was not liable for the tuition of such indigent children, unless 
they were sent to school by him under an express or implied contract 
to be responsible for such tuition ; and that if sent by their parents, or 
if they attended school of their own accord, the trustees should exempt 
the parents from payment of the tuition bill. [Per Spencer, Supt., 1840.) 

A grandfather is not prima facie liable for the board or schooling of a 
grandchild. He may, however, become liable, in the same manner and 
to the same extent as any individual who has a youth residing with him 



2S6 DUTY OF TRUSTEES. 

whom he supports, and suffers to go to school without giving any particu- 
lar directions on the subject. An implication would arise that it was by 
his assent. But the father or mother is prima facie liable ; and some 
positive acts on the part of the grandfather must be shown, amounting 
to an assumption of liability on his part, before he can be held responsible 
for the payment of tuition under such circumstances. [Per Spencer, Supt., 
1841 ; see also Digest, p. 45.) 

In ascertaining the amount payable by each person, the question is 
often mooted whether the tuition bills of the children for whom he is 
charged are to be reduced by the application of public money. The 
statute in this particular is to be liberally construed. It secures the 
freedom of the schools, so far as the public money will make them free, 
to all persons over five and under twenty-one years of age residing in 
the district, and to all children included in the reports of the trustees. 
It directs them to enumerate in their reports all children who shall " at 
the date of such report actually be in the district, composing a part of 
the family of their parents, guardians or employers." It recognizes, 
therefore, a temporary residence for the sake of employment, such as 
would not constitute the child an inhabitant in the ordinary legal sense 
of the term, as entitling him or her to the full benefits of free education. 
The question ordinarily turns upon the point whether the residence is 
in good faith, or whether it is merely colorable with a view to resort to 
a school in another district than that in which he would have otherwise 
remained a resident. {See Digest, p. 91.) 

13. To make out a rate bill containing the name of each person so 
liable, and the amount for which he is liable ; and to annex thereto a 
warrant for the collection thereof : 



DUTY OF TRUSTEES. 



25Y 



Form of rate hill and warrant. 
Rate bill, containing tlie name of each inhabitant not exempted and liable 
for the payment of teachers' wages in District No. , in the 

town of Trenton, county of Oneida, for the term ending on the 
day of , 185 , and the amount for which he is liable. 



NAMES OF INHABITANTS 
SENDING TO SCHOOL. 


Whole number 
of days sent. 


Amount for which 
he is liable. 




John Jackson, 


104 
416 
312 
54 
416 
104 
104 
520 
520 
520 
520 
360 


$1 04 
4 10 

3 12 

54 

4 16 

1 04 
04 

2 60 

2 60 

5 20 
5 20 

3 60 




James Johnson, 

Timothy Warner, 

Solomon Kinney, 

William Jones, 

John Dye,. . ........ 




William Johnson, 

Thomas Jones, 

John RadclifF, . . . ...... 


paid $1 to teacher. 


James TuniclifF, 

John Simon, 




Joseph Williams, 






3,950 


$33 30 





To the collector of School District No. , in the town of Trenton, 

in the county of Oneida : 
You are hereby commanded to collect, from each of the persons in 
the annexed rate bill named, the several sums mentioned in the last 
column thereof, with one per cent on all such sums as may be 
voluntarily paid to you within two weeks after the receipt of this 
warrant, and with five per cent on all sums collected by you after the 
expiration of that time, for your fees, and within thirty days after 
receiving this warrant to pay the amount so collected by you into the 
hands of the trustees of said district, or one of them ; and in case any 
person therein named shall neglect or refuse to pay the amount set 
opposite his name as aforesaid, you are to levy the same by distress and 
sale of the goods and chattels of such person, except such as are exempt 
by section twenty-two, article two, title five, chapter six, part three of 
the Revised Statutes from levy and sale under execution. 



[Code.] 



33 



258v DUTY OF TRUSTEES. 

Given under our hands, this day of • , in the year of 

our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and 

A. Bo 

Trustees. 




The statute does not require the insertion in the rate bill of the num- 
ber of days for which the inhabitants are charged, and the first column 
might therefore be omitted without vitiating the warrant. The second 
column should contain the sum for which each inhabitant retnains 
liable at the time the warrant is issued, after deducting any payment 
which he may have made to the trustees or teacher. In case of such 
a partial payment having been made it may be explained in the margin. 
For statement of the property exempt from levy under the warrant to 
collect a rate bill, see p. 211, ante. 

14. To deliver such rate bill, with the warrant annexed, after the same 
shall have been made out and signed by them, to the collector of the 
district, who shall execute the same in like manner with other warrants 
directed by such trustees to such collector for the collection of district 
taxes ; and the collector to whom any such rate bill and warrant shall be 
delivered for collection shall possess the same power, be entitled to tlie 
same fees, and subject to the same restrictions and liabilities, with their 
bail and sureties, as by this title is provided in proceedings to collect 
school district taxes : The collector is under no legal obligation to give 
liotice that the rate bill is in his hands, for the purpose of receiving 
voluntary payments ; a provision to that eifect, formerly contained in the 
statute of 1847, having been omitted in the subsequent amendments. 
It would, however, be commendable in him to post a notice as soon as 
he receives the warrant. 

It will be seen by iVo. 113, post, that the warrant for the collection 
of a rate bill is to be executed in a different manner than that for a tax 
in this respect, viz : That certain property is exempt from levy for a rate 
bill which is not exempt from levy and sale for a tax. The language 
of the above clause has, however, been left unchanged in the text, with 
this explanation. 

Previous to 1847 the statute contained an express provision requiring 
the collector to execute a bond for the faithful execution of the duties 
of his office, and making his office vacant upon his omission to execute 
such bond for ten days after being required by the trustees to do so 
This provision was dropped in the revision of 1847, and the trustees 



DUTY OF TRUSTEES. 259 

h**^ -a no power to demai*! a bon'"i from the collector. Ji case of his 
embezzlement of moneys ooUected, he mav be removed froui office by the 
State Superintendent ; and the inhabitants, by the election of a faithless 
officer, render themselves liable to a new assessment to pay a second 
time taxes and rate bills which have been once collected. A bond 
voluntarily executed by the collector and his sureties would doubtless 
be valid. 

No. 112. Any balance required to be raised in any school 
district for the payment of teachers' wages beyond the amount 
apportioned to such district by the previous provisions of this 
act, and other public moneys belonging to the district appli- 
cable to the payment of teachers' wages, shall be raised by 
rate bill, to be made out by the trustees against those sending 
to school in proportion to the number of days and of children 
sent, to be ascertained by the teacher's list ; and in making 
out such rate bill, it shall be the duty of the trustees to 
exempt, either wholly or in part, as they may deem expedient, 
such indigent inhabitants as may, in their judgment, be 
entitled to such exemption, and the amount of such exemption 
shall be added to the first tax list thereafter to be made out 
by the trustees for district purposes, or shall be separately 
levied by them, as they shall deem most expedient. {Sec. 6, 
chap. 151 of 1851.) 

No. 113. The same property which is exempt, by section 
twenty-two of article two, title five, chapter six, part three 
of the Revised Statutes, from levy and sale under execution, 
shall be exempt from levy and sale under any warrant to 
collect any rate bill for wages of teachers of common schools. 
{Sec. 7, chap. 151 of 1851.) 

The articles exempted under this section will be found eniunerated 
on page 211, ante. 

No. 114. The trustees of any school district may expend 
in the repair of the school-house a sum not exceeding ten 
dollars in any one year, and the same may be levied and col- 
lected by a separate tax, or added to any tax authorized to be 
levied and colleeted. {Sec. 9, chap. 382 of 1849.) 

The power to make repairs to the extent of ten dollars in each year, 
and to collect the amouixt by tax, is independent of any vote of the 



260 DUTY OF TRUSTEES. 

district. There are very few school-liouses wliicli do not annually 
require repairs costing at least ten dollars, to maintain tliem in sucli a 
condition as tlie comfort and health of the pupils demand. The trustees 
should never permit any necessary repairs to remain undone a day 
longer than they can be executed without dismissing the school, nor 
should they hesitate to dismiss the school for a day or two when the 
repairs cannot be postponed without exposing the inmates to discomfort. 
It is not necessary that the whole of the ten dollars should be collected 
at one time or by one tax. When any sum for repairs is added to 
another tax, the fact should be distinctly stated in the heading of the 
tax list, and the amount specified. 

No. 115. When the necessary fuel for the school of any 
district shall not be provided, by means of a tax on the inhabi- 
tants of the district or otherwise, it shall be the duty of the 
trustees of the district to provide the necessary fuel, and levy 
a tax upon the inhabitants of the district to pay for the same. 
{Sec. 7, chap. 382 of 1849.) 

This section was substituted by the legislature in the place of the pro- 
visions of the act of 184Y, which authorized the trustees to require the 
inhabitants to furnish fuel in proportion to the number of children sent 
by each. They have no longer any authority to require inhabitants to 
furnish fuel, nor can it be given to them by a vote of the district. The 
only authority given to the district meeting upon the subject is to levy a 
tax upon the property of the taxable inhabitants, not a rate bill upon 
those sending to school to furnish the house with fuel. It is only by a 
voluntary arrangement that fuel can be otherwise provided. 

If wood be furnished by the inhabitants, or some of them, under 
such an arrangement, they may be credited upon the tax list Avith its 
price, as agreed upon between the party furnishing it and the trustees. 
If the fuel be not supplied in this manner, or if the quantity pro- 
vided by a tax voted by the district meeting be insufficient, it is the 
duty of the trustees to purchase what is necessary. The word " fuel " 
imports wood or other material in a state fit for use. It is not the duty 
of the teacher or of the pupils to cut or split or in any way to prepare 
the materials for use. The trustees, therefore, should require the wood 
to be adapted to the fire-place or stove, and should make the tax large 
enough to furnish a supply of fuel, sawed or cut into suitable lengths, 
split and piled in the wood-house. 



DUTY OF TRUSTEES. 261 

No. 116. It shall be the duty of the trustees of school 
districts to procure, for the use of their district, two bound 
blank books, from time to time, as shall be necessary, in one 
of which the accounts of all moneys received and paid by the 
trustees, and a statement of all movable property belonging 
to the district, shall be entered at large, and signed by such 
trustees, at or before each annual meeting in such district ; 
in the other of the said books the teachers shall enter the 
names of the scholars attending school, and the number of 
days the}'' shall have respectively attended, and also the days 
on which such school shall have been inspected by the [school 
commissioner] ; which entries shall be verified by the oath or 
affirmation of the teachers. The said books shall be preserved 
by the trustees as the property of the district, and shall be 
delivered to their successors. \_Sec. 104, chaj). 480 q/'1847.] 

The account to be entered by the trustees should specify every sum 
of money received by them, or any one of them, in his official capacity, 
from the supervisor, or on tax lists or rate bills, giving the date when 
and the source whence received. On the opposite page they should 
credit themselves with every expenditure and payment, specifying par- 
ticularly when, and to whom paid, and for what purpose, and referring 
to a proper voucher, which should be filed and delivered to their 
successors. 

On another page they should make an accurate inventory of all the 
movable property belonging to the district, such as the library of the 
district, stating the number of volumes and their condition, and giving 
a catalogue of the books, wherever a general reference cannot properly 
be made, as to the 1st, 2d, 3d, &c., series of the Harper Library, or Nos. 
1, 2, 3, &c., of the Harper Library or Family Library, &c., &c., and the 
furniture, appendages and apparatus of the school room, specifying each 
article. The whole to be followed by a certificate in the following form : 

"We, the subscribers, trustees of District No. , in the town of 
Trenton, do hereby certify that the preceding, from page to page , 
inclusive, contains a true and accurate account of all the moneys received 
by us for the use of said district, and of the expenditures thereof, and a 
correct statement and inventory of all the movable property belonging 

to said district. 

Dated this day of , 18 . 

A. B., "^ 

C. D., > Trustees. 

E. F., ) 



*262 DUTY OF TRUSTEES. 

The teacher's list, to be kept in the second book named, is the basis 
upon which rate bills are made out, and by which the sums to be paid 
by parents are to be ascertained. Among the first duties of the trustees 
will be that of placing the book in the hands of the teacher, and 
directing him to keep the list daily, and accurately. 

The teacher will write the name of each scholar on the list, the first 
day he enters school, and note his attendance every day during the 
term. The trustees should inform him that unless the roll is correctly 
and faithfully kept, and handed to them duly verified at the close of the 
school, he will not be entitled to call on them for his wages ; for his list, 
so verified, is the only legal authority upon which to issue their warrant. 

The roll may be in the following form : 



DUTY OF TRUSTEES. 



263 



5^ 


lo in -* 


•inpjmeg 


Ho Hci Ha 


•^Bpu^ 


.H r-. ,H 


•^Bpeinqx 


^ ^ •; 


•jCEpsaupa^V 


^ rH .H 


•Xspsgiix 


. r. rH « 


•XBpUO[,\[ 






H« Hn -4« 
ia »0 lO 


•ispjnjBg 


«lci H« H«« 


•ivpu^ 


^ ^ .- 


•ispsinqx 


,H ,H ^ 


•j£BpB9Up9AV 


1 r. ^ V. 


•XBpsanx 


1 - - - 


•jiBpuoiv 


1 . . . 


CO J, 


H« HIM HCI 

■ U3 lO -^ 


•XcpinjBS 


H« H« -^M 


•Xepuj 


^ ^ ^ 


•Xepsjnqx 


^ ^ ^ 


•XBps9upajW 


^ ^ rH 


•jCcpsanx 


T-( TH l-H 


•XtjpuoH 


^ ^ 






H« 




•j(Bpjn}Bg 


■: - 




•XBpUj[ 






rXBpgjnux 






•ABpseupe^ 






•ABpsanx 






•Xspnopf 


: -^ 






in • 




•iBpjnjBg 


■« ; 




•Xspui 






•jfBpsjmix 


^ •■ 




•jfBpsaiipa^V 


-4W I 




•Xspsanx 


• 




•j(BpUOJ^ 


- i 




3 

< 

3 


John Thompson, 
Mary Jones, — 
V. M- Rice. Jr... 




1 
P 


Nov. 1, 1856. 
" 8, " 
" 16. " 





264 



DUTY OF TRUSTEES. 



Ruled and kept in tbis manner, each page will serve for a montli, or 
whole term. When the teacher is furnished with a blank book not 
ruled, he should rule it with care, and he may find it convenient to 
extend the ruling so that each page will contain blanks for as many 
days and weeks as there shall be in the term for which he is employed. 

At the close of the term, a list should be made out by the teacher, 
containing the names of all the pupils, with the date of their entrance, 
and the number of days' attendance in full, as follows, viz : 

A list of the scholars who attended the district school of District 
No. , in the town of , during the quarter or term commencing 
the day of , 185 , and ending the day of , 

and the number of days they respectively attended the same. 



Time of Entrance. 



Names of Scholars. 



No. of Days' Attendance. 



Nov. 1, 1856. 



" 16, " 



John Thompson, 

Mary Jones, . 

V. M. Rice, Jr., . 



Twenty-five and half (25|-) days. 
Twenty-two (22 ) days. 

Fourteen and half (14|^) days. 



This list should be made by inserting the name of the pupil the first 
day of his entrance ; and the whole number of days' attendance may be 
inserted, at the close of the term, from the daily and weekly roll. 

At the end of this list, the following oath or aflBrmation should be 
written : 



A. B., being duly sworn (or aflSrmed), deposes that the foregoing is a 
true and accurate list of the names of the scholars who attended the 
district school of District No. , in the town of , during the 

quarter (or term) commencing the day of , and ending 



DUTY OF TRUSTEES. 



265 



tiie day of 

attended. 



, and the number of days they respectively 

A. B. 



Sworn before me, this 

, 185 . 



day 



C D., Justice of the Peace. 

This affidavit, or affirmation, may be certified by a justice of the 
peace, or commissioner of deeds, judge of any court of record, county 
clerk or school commissioner to have been taken before him. 

An abstract of the list must also be made by the teacher for the use 
of the trustees, at the end of each term, showing the results exhibited 
under the following heads, in the following form : 



Abstract of the attendance of scholars at the district school of District 
No. , in the town of , during the term commencing the 

day of > 185 , and ending the day of 

Of scholars who attended one month and less than two months, 
two months and less than four 
four months and less than six 
six months and less than eight 
eight months and less than ten 
ten months and less than twelve 
twelve months, 
ign this abstract and deliver it to the trustees. 



The teacher should s 



As few terms of any common school will be longer than six months, 
the above form extends beyond what most teachers will require. At 
the close of the year, the trustees will add together and condense these 
term abstracts into one, for the whole year ; and then the form beyond 
six months, and up to twelve, may be used. In adding up the term 
abstracts, if John Thompson's name appears on two or more terms, his 
whole time must be stated in the yearly abstract of the trustees. That 
is, if John Thompson attend, during the first term, two months, during 
the second term, three months, during the third term, four months, he 
must be computed among the scholars enumerated on the line " eight 
months and less than ten." Care should be taken not to enumerate 
the same scholar more than once in the abstract for the year. 

It should be borne in mind that the teacher cannot be required to 
buy the lists, and the book for his daily and weekly roll and for the 
final summary roll for the term. It is the duty of the trustees to furnish 

rCoDE.l 34 



266 DUTY OF TRUSTEES. 

them. If they do not, then the trustees cannot demand the list from 
the teacher, and will be personally responsible to him for his wages. 

Hence the trustees have a direct personal interest in providing the 
lists and the book, and the teacher in keeping them. 

No. 117. When the trustees of any school district are 
required or authorized by law, or by a vote of their district, 
to incur any expense for such district, and when any expenses 
incurred by them are made by express provision of law a 
charge upon such district, they may raise the amount thereof 
by tax in the same manner as if the definite sum to be raised 
had been voted by a district meeting, and the same shall be 
collected and paid over in the same manner. ( Sec. 109, chap. 
480 0/1847.) 

This provision first came into force as section 14, chap. 260 of 1841. 
The supreme court, commenting upon it, in 4 Denio, 298, says : " It is 
said that the statute ought to be so construed as to confine its opera- 
tions to small incidental expenses incurred by the trustees. But the 
language is general, and there is nothing which, upon any just principle 
of. interpretation, will warrant us in restricting the provisions to any 
particular class of expenses." That case was one in which the district 
had voted to build a school-house, and the materials and dimensions 
specified were such as to have the effect of bringing the cost within 
$400, and it was held that " if the district had left the lohole within the 
discretion of the trustees, and they had kept within the four hundred 
dollars, the act of 1841 would have authorized them to levy the tax." 
The object of this section, however, is simply to dispense with the neces- 
sity of fixing a definite amount to authorize the levying of a tax, and it 
has not the effect of permitting the trustees to levy a tax, under the 
vote of a district for expenses incurred for any purpose for which the law 
has not conferred the power upon the inhabitants of voting a definite 
tax. If the inhabitants cannot lay the tax directly, they cannot effect 
the same object by directing the trustees to expend money or to do acts 
involving the expenditure of money. 

Among the expenses made by express provision of law a charge upon 
the district, and which the trustees are authorized to incur Avithout any 
vote of their district, is that of hiring temporarily any room or rooms 
for the keeping of schools therein, whenever it shall be necessary for the 
accommodation of the children. (/S'ee No. 148, post.) 



DISTRICT TAXES. 267 

It is believed that a tax list, for any expense incurred under this sec- 
tion, may be separate, or the amount may be included in any other tax 
list necessary to be made out at the time when the amount of such 
expenses shall have been ascertained. It is, however, the duty of the 
trustees, when practicable, to ascertain the definite amount, and to make 
out the tax list therefor within thirty days after the meeting at which 
the expenditure may have been authorized. When any tax under this 
section is included in the same tax list with others, the heading should 
distinctly specify the amount, the object and the authority ; as by say- 
ing, for example : " Also, twelve dollars for the expense of temporarily 
hiring rooms for the keeping of schools therein, necessary for the 
accommodation of the children in said district, from the 1st day of May 
to the 1st day of August, 1857 ; also, eight dollars and ninety-three 
cents for the expenses incurred in grading and draining the site of the 
school-house, under the resolution of a district meeting held April 
12, 1857." 



OF THE ASSESSMENT AND COLLECTION OF DISTRICT 

TAXES. 

No. 118. In making out a tax list, the trustees of school 
districts shall apportion the same on all taxable inhabitants 
of the district, or corporations holding property therein, 
according to the valuation of the taxable property which shall ^' "^-y^^l 
be owned or possessed by them at the time of making out-^j^*^- ^ 
such list within such district, or partly within such district"^ '^■^*^* 
and partly in an adjoining district, and upon all real estate ^^ A'^^.-j^ 
lying within the boundaries of such district, the owners of 2a 

which shall be non-residents, and which shall be liable to 
taxation for town or county purposes, and shall be situated 
within three miles of the site of the school-house in such dis- 
trict. But when it shall be ascertained that the proportion 
of any tax upon any lot, tract or parcel not occupied by any 
inhabitant would not amount to fifty cents, the trustees, in 
their discretion, may omit such lot, tract or parcel from the 
tax list. {Sec. 85, chay. 480 o/1847.) 

The statute requires the trustees to ascertain and determine who are 
taxable inhabitants at the time of making out the tax list, and to appor- 
tion the tax on the persons and corporations then holding property in 
the district, without regard to the time when the same was voted, and 



268 DISTRICT TAXES. 

without discrimination on account of the purpose for whicli it was voted, 
except that in favor of any inhabitants under No. 132, post. [See Digest, 
ante, p. 39.) 

The personal property of all persons actually residing in the district 
is taxable therein, wherever such personal property may be situated. 
It is also provided, by chap. 37 of 1855, that " all persons and associa- 
tions doing business in the State of New-York, as merchants, bankers or 
otherwise, either as principals or partners, whether special or otherwise, 
and not residents of this state, shall be assessed and taxed on all sums 
invested in any manner in said business, the same as if they were resi- 
dents of this state, and said taxes shall be collected from the property 
of the firms, persons or associations to which they severally belong." 

Non-residents, taxable under the above cited statute, are to be deemed 
taxable inhabitants of the district in which- they may be doing business. 
If the owners or their agents become temporary sojourners in the state, 
for the purpose of managing such business, their residence for the pur- 
pose of such taxation is defined in the following statute : 

" § 5. Every person shall be assessed in the town or ward Avhere he 
resides when the assessment is made, for all personal estate owned by 
him, including all personal estate in his possession or under his control 
as agent, trustee, guardian, executor or administrator, and in no case 
shall property, so held under either of these trusts, be assessed against 
any other person, and in case any person, possessed of such per- 
sonal estate, shall reside during any year in which taxes may be levied, 
in two or more counties, towns or wards, his residence for the purposes 
and within the meaning of this section, shall be deemed and held to be 
in the county, town or ward in which his principal business shall have 
been transacted, but the products of any state of the United States, 
consigned to agents in any town or ward of this state, for sale on com- 
mission, for the benefit of the owner thereof, shall not be assessed to 
such agent, nor shall such agents or moneyed corporations or capitalists 
be liable to taxation under this section, for any moneys in their posses- 
sion or under their control transmitted to them for the purposes of 
investment or otherwise." {Sec. 5, title 2, chap. 13, part 1st Revised 
Statutes, as amended hy sec. 2, chap. 176 q/" 1851.) 

The Revised Statutes " of the assessment and collection of taxes," in 
title 1 of the same chapter from which the preceding quotation is taken, 
contain, the following provisions : 

"§ 2. The term 'land,' as used in this chapter, shall be construed 
to include the land itself, all buildings, and other articles erected upon 
or affixed to the same, all trees and underwood growing thereon, and all 
mines, minerals, quarries and fossils, in and under the same, except 
mines belonging to the state ; and the terms ' real estate' and * real 



DISTRICT TAXES. 269 

property,' whenever they occur in this chapter, shall he construed as 
having the same meaning as the term ' land' thus defined. 

" § 3. The terms ' personal estate' and ' personal property,' when- 
ever they occur in this chapter, shall be construed to include all house- 
hold furniture, moneys, goods, chattels, debts due from solvent debtors, 
whether on account, contract, note, bond or mortgage, public stocks 
and stocks in moneyed' corporations. They shall also be construed to 
include such portion of the capital of incorporated companies, liable to 
taxation on their capital, as shall not be invested in real estate. 

" § 4. The following property shall be exempt from taxation : 

" 1. All property, real or personal, exempted from taxation by the con- 
stitution of this state or under the constitution of the United States ; 

" 2. All lands belonging to this state or the United States ; 

"3. Every building erected for the use of a college, incorporated 
academy or other seminary of learning ; every building for public wor- 
ship, every school-house, court-house and jail ; and the several lots 
whereon such buildings are situated, and the furniture belonging to each 
of them ; 

• "4. Every poor-house, alms-house, house of industry, and every house 
belonging to a company incorporated for the reformation of offenders, 
and the real and personal property belonging to or connected Avith the 
same ; 

" 5. The real and personal property of every public library ; 

" 6. All stocks owned by the state or by literary or charitable institu- 
tions ; 

" 1. The personal estate of every incorporated company not made 
liable to taxation on its capital in the fourth title of this chapter ; 

" 8. The personal property of every minister of the gospel, or priest, 
of any denomination ; and the real estate of such minister, or priest, 
when occupied by him, provided such real and personal estate do not 
exceed in value one thousand five hundred dollars ; and 

" 9. All property exempted by laAV from execution. 

"§ 5. If the real and personal estate, or either of them, of any 
minister or priest exceed the value of one thousand five hundred dol- 
lars, that sum shall be deducted from the valuation of his property, and 
the residue shall be liable to taxation. 

" § 6. Lands sold by the state, though not granted or conveyed, shall 
be assessed in the same manner as if actually conveyed. 

" § Y. The owner or holder of stock in any incorporated company, 
liable to taxation on its capital shall not be taxed as an individual for 
such stock." 

It is also provided by § 5, chap. 546 of 1855, that "toll-houses and 
other fixtures, and all property belonging to any plank or turnpike road 
company, shall be exempt from assessment and taxation for any purpose 
whatever, until the surplus annual receipts of tolls on their respective 
roads, over necessary repairs, and a suitable reserve fund for repairs and 
relaying of plank, shall exceed seven per cent per annum on the first 



270 DISTRICT TAXES. 

cost of such road. In case of any disagreement between tlie assessors 
of any town, village or city and any such company concerning such 
exemption claimed, said company may appeal to the county judge 
of the county in which such assessment is proposed to be made, who 
shall, after due notice to the appealing party of such appeal, examine 
the books and vouchers of such company, and take such further proofs 
as he shall deem proper, and shall decide whether such company is 
liable to taxation under the section, and his decision shall be final." 
(^Session Laws of 1855, p. 1044.) 

Subsequent statutes have added to the enumeration of personal 
property above given, the rents reserved on certain leases and certain 
debts due to non-residents of the United States, as follows : 

" § 1. It shall be the duty of the assessors of each town and ward, 
while engaged in ascertaining the taxable property therein, by diligent 
inquiry to ascertain the amount of rents reserved in any leases in fee, 
or for one or more lives, or for a term of years exceeding twenty-one 
years, and chargeable upon lands within such town or ward, which rents 
shall be assessed, to the person or persons entitled to receive the same, 
as personal estate, which it is hereby declared to be for the purpose of 
taxation under this act, at a principal sum, the interest of which at the 
legal rate per annum shall produce a sum equal to such annual rents ; 
and in case such rents are payable in any other thing except money, 
the value of such annual rents in money shall be ascertained by the 
assessors, and the same shall be assessed in manner aforesaid. {Laws of 
1846, chap. 327, § 1, p. 466.) 

" § 2. The board of supervisors in each county shall assess the taxes, 
to be raised for town, county and state purposes, upon the person or 
persons entitled to receive such rents, within the town or ward where 
the lands upon which such rents are reserved and situated, in the same 
manner and to the same extent as any personal estate of the inhabitants 
of such town." [Same chap., ^ 2, p. 461.) 

Under this statute it has been decided (4 Barb., 12) that "The tax 
is to be assessed in the town where the lands lie. In this respect it is 
like a tax on real estate, and not like that on personal estate, which 
follows the residence of the person whose property is assessed." In that 
case it was held that the valuation of the assessors might be corrected 
by the affidavit of the person assessed, and, as was also held in 7 Barb., 
251, that all leases are included within the act which originally had more 
than twenty-one years to run, notwithstanding the term remaining 
unexpired at the time the assessment is made may be less than twenty- 
one years; in other words, the rents reserved under such a lease 
continue to be taxable till the expiration of the term. It was held, in 
8 Barb., 23, that the tenant was not liable to pay to the landlord taxes 



DISTRICT TAXES. . 271 

assessed upon such rents under a lease in perpetuity, though the lease 
contained a covenant binding the tenant to pay any taxes assessed upon 
the premises or upon the landlord, his heirs, &c., for and in respect to 
the premises. 

" § 1. All debts, owing by inhabitants of this state to persons not 
residing within the United States, for the purchase of any real estate 
shall be deemed personal property, within the town or county where 
the debtor resides, and as such shall be liable to taxation in the same 
manner and to the same extent as the personal estate of citizens of this 
state." {Laws of 1851, chap. 371, p. 721.) 

The debt taxable under this section must be for the purchase of real 
estate, and is to be taxed in the district where the debtor resides, irre- 
spective of the fact that the real estate may lie elsewhere. 

In regard to real estate, they are taxable inhabitants who, living in 
the district, own or possess any land therein, that is to say, all persons 
who have the general property in the soil ; and all persons who occupy 
it as tenants having a temporary right to its possession under a landlord. 
The latter, although only tenants at will, may be assessed for the land 
in their occupation, as appears from No. 119, post. The distinction is 
between a tenant, for however brief a period, who occupies the land for 
his own profit and is entitled to a notice to quit before he can be 
divested, and a mere agent or servant, managing the land or employed 
upon it for the profit of another, under wages and without any title to 
the possession of the land or to its products. In respect to land within 
the district occupied by such agents, the employer, whether holding 
the fee or a leasehold estate, and though residing outside of the district, 
is declared by No. 120, post, to be a taxable inhabitant in respect to 
the liability of such property to taxation, in the same manner as if he 
actually resided within its bounds. 

After completing the enumeration of taxable inhabitants as defined by 
the various provisions above cited, and which may include sundry persons 
not residing in the district, the trustees are to inquire whether there are 
any lands lying within the boundaries of such district which are liable 
to taxation for town or county purposes, and are situated within three 
miles of the site of the school-house, the owners of which are non- 
residents, and which lands are not occupied by a tenant (who would 
himself be taxable) or improved by an agent or servant, whose occupation 
would render the owner not a non-resident, in the sense of the law for 
the purpose of taxation, although in fact residing in some other district. 
The following directions to the assessors in reference to the mode of 
designating the lands of non-residents, in tit. 2, chap. 13, 1st part of the 



272 . DISTRICT TAXES. 

Revised Statutes (and which are of course to be followed by trustees 
when they find it necessary to make an original assessment) show that 
it is only unoccupied land which is to be so regarded : 

"§ 11. The lands of non-residents shall be designated in the same 
assessment roll, but in a part thereof separate from the other assess- 
ments, and in the manner prescribed in the two following sections : 

" § 12. If the land to be assessed be a tract which is subdivided into 
lots, or be part of a tract which is so subdivided, the assessors shall 
proceed as follows : 

" 1. They shall designate it by its name, if known by one, or if it be 
not distinguished by a name, or the name be unknown, they shall state 
by what other lands it is bounded ; 

" 2. If they can obtain correct information of the subdivisions, they 
shall put down in their assessment rolls, and in a first column, all 
the unoccupied lots in their town or ward, owned by non-residents, by 
their numbers alone and without the name of their owners, beginning 
at the lowest number and proceeding in numerical order to the highest ; 

" 3. In the second column, and opposite to the number of each lot, 
they shall set down the quantity of land therein liable to taxation ; 

" 4. In a third column, and opposite to the quantity, they shall set 
down the valuation of such quantity ; 

" 5. If such quantity be a full lot, it shall be designated by the number 
alone ; if it be a part of a lot, the part must be designated by bounda- 
ries, or in some other way by which it may be known. 

** § 13. If the land so to be assessed be a tract which is not subdivided, 
or if its subdivisions cannot be ascertained by the assessors, they shaU 
proceed as follows : 

" 1. They shall enter in their roll the name or boundaries thereof, as 
above directed, and certify in the roll that such tract is not subdivided, 
or that they cannot obtain correct information of the subdivisions, as 
the case may be ; 

" 2. They shall set down in the proper column the quantity and valua- 
tion, as above directed ; 

" 3. If the quantity to be assessed be the whole tract, such description 
by its name or boundaries will be sufficient; but if a part only is 
liable to taxation, that part, or the part not liable, must be particularly 
described ; 

" 4. If any part of such tract be settled and occupied by a resident of 
the town or ward, the assessors shall except such part from their assess- 
ment of the whole tract, and shall assess it as other occupied lands are 
assessed." 

The residue of the section relates to the making of a map, which is 
supposed not to be applicable to trustees of school districts ; if a map is 
already on file, the trustees may refer to it in aid of their descriptions. 

Without amending the sections above quoted, the legislature, by § I, 
chap. 176 of 1851, declared that "Land occupied by a person other 
than the owner may be assessed to the owner or occupant, or as non- 



DISTRICT TAXES. 273 

resident land." It is not easy to reconcile the apparent conflict; and 
as tke statute last mentioned is merely permissive, it will be safest for 
trustees to treat as non-resident lands only those which are unoccupied, 
or, at most, so occupied that there is no prospect of collecting the tax 
otherwise than by the sale of the land. 

It is the general rule that, if " assessors should assume to assess land 
lying in another town or ward, their act would unquestionably be void 
for want of jurisdiction." (7 Barb., 129.) The same general rule 
applies to trustees in making an original assessment, or in selecting 
from the town assessment roll the lands to be included in a district tax 
list. {^ See Digest, ante, pp. 93, 100.) To make an assessment legal, 
they must have jurisdiction of the particular case. If they transcend 
the limits of their authority, and undertake to assess property exempt 
by statute, they cease to be judges, and are responsible for all the con- 
sequences. A public officer is not responsible, in a civil suit, for a judicial 
determination in a matter over which he had jurisdiction, however 
erroneous it may be, but no officer can acquire jurisdiction by deciding 
that he has it. (5 Barb., 611; and see 19 Barb., 22.) The statute 
gives them jurisdiction, as to land lying outside of the territorial limits 
of their district, only by directing them to apportion the tax " accord- 
ing to the valuation of the taxable property which shall be owned or 
possessed by them (taxable inhabitants) at the time of making out such 
list within such a district, or partly within such district and partly 
within an adjoining district.^'' The statute evidently contemplates a 
single paicel of land, in the possession of a single occupant, which is 
intersected by the boundary line of two districts. If the possession is 
severed, as if the land is owned by the same person, but the part within"^ 
the district is occupied by the owner and that which lies outside the 
district by a tenant, or vice versa, or if the respective parts are occupied 
by different tenants of the same owner, or if one of them only is occu- 
pied and the other is vacant and unimproved, then the respective par- 
cels are to be taxed, each in the district within whose boundaries it is 
actually contained. So, if one of the parcels is occupied by a person as 
owner, and the other is also occupied by him as tenant of a third person, 
the parts must be taxed in the districts containing them respectively, 
for the trustees of the district containing the portion under lease have 
the right to assess it to the oioner, disregarding the occupant. The 
statute, moreover, requires something more than the imaginary contact 
of the two parcels in a mathematical point, as where they have only an 
angle in common. They should be so connected as to have at least a 

fCoDE.] 35 



2U DISTRICT TAXES. 

line of contact, and not a mere point. Where, however, two parcels in 
the possession of the same owner are sepai*ated only by a public high- 
way, the fee of which he owns, subject to the right of passage in the 
public, this is not to be regarded as preventing their contact. 

There are serious difficulties growing out of the fact that the statute, 
under the most restricted interpretation that can be put upon it, some- 
times permits the resources of a district to be weakened by the purchase 
of a part of its territory by the inhabitants of an adjoining district. 
Thou_gh the district boundaries are not thereby altered, yet, for the 
eminently practical object of taxation, the result is the same as if they 
were. Whenever this can be prevented by a voluntary arrangement 
between the seller, purchaser and trustees of the respective districts, by 
which the land shall be granted subject to taxation in the district in 
which it lies, by express reservation in the deed, it may prevent a ques- 
tion which is much more troublesome if postponed until the levying 
of an extraordinary tax, such as that for building a school-house. 

In respect to property exempt from taxation, it has been decided that 
a minister of the gospel, or priest, to bring himself within the exemp- 
tion, must show that the value of both his real and personal property 
did not exceed f 1500, and it seems that only that sum is to be deducted 
from the valuation of both, and not $1500 from the valuation of each, 
if each exceeded that amount. (5 Barb., 609.) The latter point, 
however, was not necessarily involved in the decision. 

The land owned by a minister of the gospel, if rented, can be taxed 

to the tenant. It is exempt from taxation to a certain extent, only 

when occupied hy such minister. If, however, the occupant is the agent 

•nerely of the minister, so as to render it necessary to make out the 

assessment against the latter as owner, the property is then exempt. 

Land occupied by a minister of the gospel, as tenant, has been held 
exempt to the amount of $1500, under the provision above quoted. 
[Com, School Dec, 61.) The exemption is personal to the minister, 
and does not avail the OA^ner. 

The court of appeals held, in 3 ITernan, 220, that the school-houses 
referred to in the statute, exempting property from taxation, are those 
used for the public common schools, and that buildings erected and 
used for private unincorporated seminaries of learning, or for boarding 
schools, are not exempt — overruling a dictum in 1 Seld., 3lG. 

No. 119. Any person working land, under a contract for a 
share of the produce of such land, shall be deemed the pos- 



DISTRICT TAXES. 2Y5 

sessor, so far as to render him liable to taxation therefor in 
the district where such land is situate. ( Sec. 86, chai). 480 
of 1847.) 

The meaning of this section is beheved to be, that a tenant, working 
land and paying a share of the produce as rent, is taxable, and not that 
a servant or agent is taxable who agrees to take a sh*are of the produce 
as his wages for working the land. It may sometimes be a little diffi- 
cult to ascertain whether the relation is that of landlord and tenant, or 
that of master and servant. (15 Barb., 597.) It being the policy of 
the law (as will be apparent from No. 121') that a landlord leasing for 
a short term should pay the school taxes for permanent objects, unless 
there is an express agreement to the contrary, it will be safest in cases 
of doubt to avoid the question by assessing the owner. 

No. 120. Every person owning or holding any real property 
within any school district, who shall improve and occupy the 
same by his agent or servant, shall, in respect to the liability 
of such property to taxation, be considered a taxable inhabi- 
tant of such district, in the same manner as if he actually 
resided therein. {Sec. 87, chap. 480 o/1847.) 

It is not necessary that the agent or servant should reside on the 
land, in order to render the owner a taxable inhabitant. The section 
was intended to prevent the necessity of resorting to a sale of the land, 
and to authorize the collector to levy, under his warrant, upon the per- 
sonal property of an owner of land not residing in the district, but 
managing the land himself, or by agents or workmen, instead of renting 
it. If the land be occupied by tenants or sub-tenants, they and not the 
non-resident owner are to be taxed for the parts occupied by them 
respectively. They are for the time being owners (8 Wend., 518), and, 
although the-i/ too should not reside on the land, are made taxable 
inhabitants, if they improve it. It is very plain that, where land which 
comes within the description of the preceding section is situated partly 
in one district and partly in an adjoining one, the owner, although a 
resident of neither, is a taxable inhabitant of both, in respect to the 
liability of the several parcels to taxation in the district in which each 
is actually contained. Each district must tax such owner only for the 
part actually within its boundaries. It is difBcult to see why it should 
be otherwise, if he happens to be a resident of either district, inasmuch 
as No. 118, ante, makes his liability to taxation depend not upon resi- 



216 DISTRICT TAXES. 

dence, but upon his being a " taxable inhabitant," within the definition 

of the statute. 

No. 121. Where any district tax, for the purpose of pur- 
chasing a site for a school-house, or for purchasing or build- 
ing, keeping in repair or furnishing such school-house with 
necessary fuel and appendages, shall be lawfully assessed, and 
paid by any person on account of any real property whereof 
he is only tenant at will, or for three years, or for a less 
period of time, such tenant may charge the owner of such 
real estate with the amount of the tax so paid by him, unless 
some agreement to the contrary shall have been made by such 
tenant. ( Sec. 88, chap. 480 of 1847. ) 

The tenant can charge his landlord only with such taxes as he may 
have paid for the specific purposes mentioned. If taxed for the 
exemption of indigent inhabitants from rate bill, for the hire of tempo- 
rary school-house or rooms, for the purchase of maps, globes, school 
apparatus, books for library, for district minutes, and for teacher's 
register of attendants, or any other object than those enumerated in the 
preceding section, he cannot set it off" against his rent or make the 
landlord repay him. 

No. 122. When any real estate within a district, so liable 
to taxation, shall not be occupied and improved by the owner, 
his servant or agent, and shall not be possessed by any tenant, 
the trustees of any district, at the time of making out any tax 
list by which any tax shall be imposed thereon, shall make 
and insert in such tax list a statement and description of 
every such lot, piece or parcel of land so owned by non- 
residents therein, in the same manner as required by law from 
town assessors in making out the assessment roll of their 
towns ; and if any such lot is known to belong to an incor- 
porated company, liable to taxation in such district, the name 
'of such company shall be specified, and the value of such lot 
or piece of land shall be set down opposite to such descrip- 
tion, which value shall be the same that was affixed to such 
lot or piece of land in the last assessment roll of the town ; 
and if the same was not separately valued in such roll, then 
it shall be valued in proportion to the valuation which was 
.affixed in the said assessment roll to the whole tract of which 
such lot or piece shall be a part. {Sec. 89, chap. 480 of 1847.) 



DISTRICT TAXES. 211 

The directions of the statute for the description of non-resident lands 
have been given at page 272, ante. The preceding section requires, 
in addition, that the name of each incorporated company known to be 
the owner of mioccupied land shall be specified. The non-resident 
lands are to be described in a part of the tax list separate from the other 
assessments, and the greatest care is requisite to secure a minute com- 
pliance with the demands of the law. The description must be such 
that the state comptroller can perceive that it will enable a purchaser 
at the tax sale to locate the land with certainty, and also enable the 
non-resident owner to know, from such description alone, that it is his 
land which has been sold, so that he may redeem it. 

It is only real estate within the district that is to be described as non- 
resident property; and if it be part of a tract extending into other 
districts, the description in the town assessment roll may not show how 
much is in one district and how much in another. The trustees must 
supply this defect, in making out their tax list, by giving an accurate 
description of the boundary line of their district which intersects any 
unoccupied lot or subdivision of a tract. The description of each 
parcel separately taxed must be such that if that description, copied 
literally from the tax list, were inserted in a deed by the comptroller, 
without adding any other words, it would suffice to identify the lot 
and determine its boundaries. 

No, 123. If any tax on the real estate of a non-resident 
mentioned in the tax list delivered to the collector shall be 
unpaid at the time he is required by law to return his war- 
rant, he shall deliver to the trustees of such district an account 
of the taxes so remaining due, containing a description of the 
lots and pieces of land upon which any taxes were imposed, 
as the same were stated in his tax list, together with the 
amount of the tax assessed on each ; and upon making oath 
before any justice of the peace or judge of any court of record 
that the taxes mentioned in such account remain unpaid, and 
that after diligent efforts he has been unable to collect the 
same, he shall be credited by said trustees with the amount 
thereof, {Sec. 90, chaj,. 480 o/1847.) 

The description in the collector's return must be the same as that in 
the tax list. The account should be in substantially the following form : 



278 



DISTRICT TAXES. 



Account of unpaid taxes assessed upon the lands of non-residents in 
School District No. , in the town of , county of , 

in a tax list made out by the trustees of said district, for 
and delivered to the collector on the day of ,185 



NO. AND DESCEIPTION OF LOTS AND 
PARTS OF LOTS. 


Quant'y of land 

therein liable to 

taxation. 


Valuation of 
such quantity. 


Amount of 
tax. 




10 acres. 
21 « 


$25 00 
6 00 


$0 75 
18 


That part of the southwest quarter of lot No. 23, 
short tract, which lies east of a line running 
north 43° west from the southeast corner of 
lot No. 12, in the same tract, being the dis- 
trict boundary line, 







:i 



ss. 



County, 
Town of 

John Doe, being duly sworn, deposes and says that he is collector 
of taxes in and for School District No. , of the town of , 

aforesaid ; that the foregoing is a true account of the taxes remaining 
due upon the real estate of non-residents in said district ; that the taxes 
mentioned in such account remain unpaid, and that after diligent efforts 
he has been unable to collect the same. 

JOHN DOE. 
Sworn and subscribed before me, 
this day of , 185 . 

E. F., Justice of the Peace. 



No. 124. Whenever the trustees of any school district shall 
receive such an account of unpaid taxes from any collector, 
they shall compare the same with the original tax list, and if 
found to be a true transcript, they shall add to such account 
a certificate to the effect that they have compared the same 
with the original tax list and found it to be correct, and shall 
immediately transmit such account, with the affidavit of the 



DISTRICT TAXES. 2*79 

collector and their certificate, to the treasurer of the county. 
{Sec. 91, chap. 480 of 1847.) 

The certificate of the trustees should be attached to the affidavit of 
the collector, upon the original account. It may be as follows : 

" The undersigned, trustees of School District No. , in the town 

of , county of , hereby certify that the preceding is an 

account of unpaid taxes assessed on the real estate of non-residents in 
said district, delivered to the trustees thereof by John Doe, collector of 
taxes therein, and that we have examined and compared the same with 
the original tax list for and found it to be 

correct. Dated this day of ,185 ." 

This should be signed by a majority, at least, of the trustees. The 
purpose for which the tax list was made out ought to be stated, so that 
it may appear to have been for objects for which taxes may be legally 
imposed by a district meeting or by the trustees. 

No. 125. Out of any moneys in the county treasury, raised 
for contingent expenses, the county treasurer shall pay to the 
trustees of the school district in which such taxes were 
imposed the amount thereof so returned as unpaid. ( Sec. 92, 
ckaji. 480 of 184:7.) 

It is imperative upon the county treasurer to pay at once the amount 
of taxes of non-residents returned unpaid, if there be any money raised 
for contingent expenses in the treasury and the certificate of the 
trustees is regular upon its face. If there be no such money in the 
county treasurj^, it is still his duty to lay the account before the board 
of supervisors, as prescribed in the next section, that they may raise it. 
The remedy of the trustees, in case of a refusal of the county treasurer 
to pay, is by application to the supreme court for a writ of mandamus. 

No. 126. Such account, affidavit and certificate shall be 
laid by the county treasurer before the board of supervisors 
of the county, who shall cause the amount of such unpaid 
taxes, with seven per cent of the amount in addition thereto, 
to be levied upon the lands of non-residents on which the 
same were imposed, and if imposed upon the lands of any 
incorporated company, then upon such company, in the same 
manner that the contingent charges of the county are directed 
to be levied and collected ; and when collected, the same 



280 DISTRICT TAXES. 

shall be returned to the county treasury, to reimburse the 
amount so advanced, with the expense of collection. ( Sec. 93, 
cAap. 480 0/1847.) 

This section seems to contemplate that the supervisors shall impose 
any tax returned, with the addition of seven per cent, upon the very 
same lands on which they were charged by the trustees, and therefore 
not to contemplate any correction of the description by them. This is 
a reason for great care on the part of the trustees in preparing the 
original description in the tax list. 

No. 127. Any person whose lands are included in any such 
account may pay the tax assessed thereon to the county 
treasurer, at any time before the board of supervisors shall 
have directed the same to be levied. ( Sec. 94, chap. 480 of 
1847.) 

No. 128. The same proceedings in all respects shall be had 
for the collection of the amount so directed to be raised by 
the board of supervisors as are provided by law in relation to 
county taxes ; and upon a similar account, as in the case of 
county taxes of the arrears thereof uncollected, being trans- 
mitted by the county treasurer to the comptroller, the same 
shall be paid on his warrant to the treasurer of the county 
advancing the same ; and the amount so assumed by the state 
shall be collected for its benefit, in the manner prescribed by 
law in respect to the arrears of county taxes upon land of 
non-residents ; or if any part of the amount so assumed con- 
sisted of a tax upon any incorporated company, the same 
proceedings may also be had for the collection thereof as 
provided by law in respect to the county taxes assessed upon 
such company. {Sec. 95, chap. 480 o/'1847.) 

No. 129. In every case where a district embraces a part of 
more than one town, the [supervisors] of the towns so in part 
embraced, upon application of the trustees of such districts, 
or of those persons liable to pay taxes upon real property 
therein, shall proceed to inquire and determine whether the 
valuation of real property upon the several assessment rolls of 
said towns are substantially just, as- compared with each 
other, so far as such district is concerned, and if determined 
not to be so, they shall determine the relative proportion of 
taxes that ought to be assessed upon the real property of the 
parts of such districts so lying in different towns, and the 



DISTRICT TAXES. 281 

trustees of such district shall thereupon assess the proportion 
of any tax thereafter to be raised, according to the determi- 
nation of said [supervisors], until the same shall he altered 
by said [supervisors] upon like application, using the assess- 
ment rolls of the several towns to distribute the said propor- 
tion among the persons liable to be assessed for the same. 
In cases vv^here two [supervisors] shall be unable to agree, 
they shall summon a [supervisor] from some adjoining town, 
who shall unite in such inquiry and determination. {Sec. 72, 
chap. 480 of 184:7, modified in conformity to No. 56.) 

The supervisors of the towns, parts of whicli are included in any joint 
district, may act under this section, upon the written application of its 
trustees or taxable inhabitants. The power would be practically nuga- 
tory, if its exercise depended upon the application of a majority of the 
inhabitants. In determining the proportion of taxes to be levied upon 
the respective parts of a joint district, the simplest form will be to state 
how many cents in the dollar, of each tax, shall be levied upon the real 
property of one part, and how many upon the other. A record of this 
determination should be made in duplicate or triplicate, according to 
the number of towns ; each should be signed by the supervisors, and 
one copy filed in the clerk's office of each town. It may be in the fol- 
lowing form, and should have annexed to it the original application 
upon which it was made, evidence of which is necessary to uphold the 
order. (21 Barb., 210.) 

In the matter of the equalization of assessments for school purposes, in 

Joint District No. , of the towns of , in county, 

and , in county. 

Application having been made to the supervisors of the towns 
of and , by persons liable to pay taxes in Joint School 

District No. of said towns (or by the trustees), to inquire whether 

the valuations of real property upon the several assessment rolls of said 
towns are substantially just, as compared with each other, so far as such 
district is concerned, and the said supervisors being unable to agree, 
having summoned J. D., Esq., supervisor of the adjoining town of , 

to unite in such inquiry, and a meeting of said supervisors having been 
held for that purpose, at which were present A. B. and C. D. (and E. F. 
having been duly notified, failed to attend), and it having been deter- 
mined that such valuations are not substantially just, as compared with 
each other, it was then and is hereby determined that the relative pro- 

[Code.] 36 



282 DISTRICT TAXES. 

portion of taxes that ought to be assessed upon the real property of 
parts of such districts lying in different towns is as follows, viz : thirty- 
one cents in each dollar to be assessed upon the real property of said 
district, should be assessed upon the part lying in the town of , 

and sixty-nine cents in the dollar upon the part lying in the town of 
Dated this day of , 185 . 

A. B., Supervisor of 
C. D., Supervisor of 

This determination does not affect the assessment of personal pro- 
perty. The trustees must, therefore, proceed as follows : Taking the 
aggregate of the valuations of real and personal estate in the district, as 
ascertained from the town assessment rolls (after making any additions 
of personal property found proper by the trustees), they are to deter- 
mine how much of the tax is to be assessed upon the personal and how 
much upon the real estate. It may thus, for example, be found that of a 
tax of $400, $73 will be chargeable on the personal estate. The residue, 
$327, is then to be assessed, thirty-one per cent of it, or $101.37, on 
the real property in one town, and sixty-nine per cent, or $225.63, on 
that in the other, using the assessment roll of each town to determine 
the proportion which each person resident therein is to be assessed for 
real or personal property, [See Digest, ante, p. 101.) 

No. 130. The valuations of taxable property shall be ascer- 
tained, so far as possible, from the last assessment roll of the 
town ; and no person shall be entitled to any reduction in 
the valuation of such property, as so ascertained, unless he 
shall give notice of his claim to such reduction to the trustees 
of the district before the tax list shall be made out. ( Sec. 96, 
chap. 480 of 18^7.) 

The first duty of trustees is to determine who are the taxable inhabi- 
tants of the district. In doing this they may find some persons not 
named in the town assessment roll. Some of them may be taxable, as 
the possessors of property which has been valued in that roll, and which 
belonged to other persons at the time it was made out. In the valuation 
of such property, the trustees are to be governed by the assessment roll. 
They are not to reduce it, unless the new owner shall give notice of his 
claim to such reduction before the tax list shall be made out, and they 
are not to reduce it without giving the notice provided by the next 
section. To reduce the valuation of one, is precisely equivalent to 



DISTRICT TAXES. 283 

raising that of every other taxable inhabitant, for it increases his quota 
of the tax. He cannot be subjected to such increase of taxation, beyond 
what his share would be according to the last town assessment roll, 
without being put upon his guard by the posting of a notice. [Bigest, 
ante, p. 44; 1 Denio, 214.) 

Other persons may be found to be taxable on account of their posses- 
sion of property, real or personal, for which no person was assessed on 
the town assessment roll. Such property may be real estate casually 
overlooked by the assessors, or purposely omitted because it was then 
exempt by being occupied by a minister of the gospel, or for any other 
reason ; or it may consist in accessions to real estate — to put. an uncom- 
mon case : land formed by the gradual washing up of sand on the shore 
of the sea or of our great lakes, which belongs to the owner of the adja- 
cent bank, or an island formed in the bed of a river not navigable, 
which is to be divided according to the original thread of the river 
between the proprietors on the opposite banks, or to him on whose side 
of the original thread it lies (1 Y Pich., 41 ) — or in improvements, such as 
the building of a house or barn, not completed when the toAvn assess- 
ment was made. Or the property may be personal, arising from the 
sale of real estate within the district, or the acquisition of personal estate 
by devise or otherwise to an inhabitant of the district, such property 
not being in the district, but following the person of its owner for the 
purpose of taxation. In all these cases, an original valuation by the 
trustees is to be made, and a notice is necessary. Additions to the last 
assessment roll, in consequence of buildings subsequently erected, should 
not be made by the trustees until they are so far completed that their 
value is not contingent and uncertain. {^Com. School Dec, 194.) 

Trustees cannot assess an individual for personal property, if he has 
been taxed for none on the last assessment roll of the town, on the mere 
supposition that he may have more than his debts amount to. The 
assessment roll of the town settles the matter, and the trustees cannot 
vary the amount but from some knowledge of an alteration after that roll 
was made out, or to correct some known and acknowledged error. 
{Id., 342.) 

The vendor of a farm remaining in possession is liable for taxes 
assessed on it. {Id., 83. hut see p. 54, Digest, ante.) 

If a taxable inhabitant sells his farm and remains in the district, he is 
liable to be taxed on the amount of the purchase money paid, or secured 
to be paid, as personal property ( unless he shows that, notwithstanding 
the increase of his personal property, its value is still exceeded by his 



284 DISTRICT TAXES. 

debts), and the purchaser is taxable for the farm according to its 
assessed value on the last assessment roll of the town. \Id., 285, 342.) 

Where land, owned by the same person, is situated in different dis- 
tricts in the same town, but all included under one assessment by the 
town assessors, if all the land is of the same description, and was 
actually valued at the same rate per acre, without any variation on 
account of improvements or otherwise, or if it appears on the roll at 
what rates the separate parts were valued, then the valuation of the 
portion situate in any particular district may be ascertained by the 
trustees from such last assessment roll. But if the valuation by the 
town assessor was general, and if the land was of different degrees of 
quality or value, or if a dwelling-house or other improvements are 
situated in one district and none in another, a new and original assess- 
ment must in such case be made, by the trustees, giving the notices, 
(fee, and proceeding in the mode required by law. (Per Spencer, Supt., 
Jan., 1841 ; and see Digest, p. 17.) 

As to what assessment roll the trustees are to be governed by, see 
p. 104, ante. 

Where a person, assessed for a greater number of acres than his farm 
contains, omits to claim a reduction when the tax is assessed by the 
trustees, he will not be relieved subsequently on appeal. ( Com. School 
Dec, 341.) 

No. 131. In every case where such reduction shall be duly 
claimed, and in every case where the valuation of taxable 
property cannot be ascertained from the last assessment roll 
of the town, the trustees shall ascertain the true value of the 
property to be taxed from the best evidence in their power, 
giving notice to the persons interested, and proceeding in the 
same manner as the town assessors are required by law to 
proceed in the valuations of taxable property. {Sec. 97, chap. 
480 0/-1847.) 

The trustees, proceeding in the same manner as town assessors, should 
first ascertain the true value of the property to be taxed, according to 
their judgment. The rule prescribed by the Revised Statutes, as 
amended by § 3, chap. 176 of 1851, is : 

"All real and personal estate liable to taxation shall be estimated 
and assessed by the assessors at its full and true value, as they would 
appraise the same in payment of a just debt due from a solvent debtor." 
[Session Laws of 1851,^. 333.) 



DISTRICT TAXES. 285 

After having completed a tax list, by taking the valuations from the 
town assessment roll, where it furnishes them, and having added thereto 
such original assessments as in their judgment are required, the statute 
directs that the assessors (and consequently, by the above sections, the 
trustees) " shall make out one fair copy thereof, to be left with one of 
their number. They shall also forthwith cause notices thereof to be put 
up at three or more public places in the district." 

" Such notices shall set forth that the assessors have completed their 
assessment roll, and that a copy thereof is left with one of their number, 
at a place to be specified therein, where the same may be seen and 
examined by any person interested, until the third Tuesday of August ; 
and that on that day the assessors will meet, at a time and place also to 
be specified in such notice, to review their assessments. On the applica- 
tion of any person conceiving himself aggrieved, it shall be the duty of the 
said assessors on such day to meet, at the time and place specified, and 
hear and examine all complaints in relation to such assessments that 
may be brought before them ; and they are hereby empowered and it 
shall be their duty to adjourn from time to time, as may be necessary, to 
hear and determine such complaints." (^Session Laws of 1851, j9. 333.) 

The notice to be given by trustees necessarily varies somewhat from 
that of assessors, and may be in the following form : 

Notice is hereby given, that the trustees of School District No. . , 
in the town of , have completed their tax list to raise the sum of 

$10 for repairs of school-house, $8 to furnish the same with the neces- 
sary fuel (enumerating the several taxes included in the list), and that a 
copy thereof is left with the undersigned, A. B., at his office (mill, 
dwelling-house, or as the case may be), where the same may be seen 
and examined by any person interested, during twenty days from the 
date of this notice; and that said trustees will meet at the house 
of , in said district, on the day of next, 

(specifying a day subsequent at least twenty-one days, to the posting) 
at o'clock, in the noon, to review the said tax list, on the 

application of any person conceiving himself aggrieved. 
Dated this day of ,185 

A.B., ^ 

C. D., > Trustees of District No. 

E.F., ) 

" § 5. If the assessors shall wilfully neglect to hold the meeting 
specified in the last preceding section, each assessor so neglecting shall 



286 DISTRICT TAXES. 

be liable to a penalty of twenty dollars, to be sued for and recovered 
before any court having jurisdiction thereof by the supervisor of the 
town, for the use of the poor of the same town ; and in case of such 
neglect to meet for review, any person aggrieved by the assessment of 
the assessors may appeal to the board of supervisors at their next 
annual meeting, who shall have power to review and correct such assess- 
ment." (^Session Laws of 1851,^. 333.) 

Quere, whether the provision for an appeal to the board of super- 
visors is applicable to a school district tax. Even if it is, there is no 
provision for suspending the proceedings for collection upon such an 
appeal. 

The trustee with whom the tax list is left is required by law to 
" submit the same, during the twenty days specified in such notice, to 
the inspection of all persons who shall apply for that purpose." 

The provisions of the Revised Statutes, in regard to the proceedings 
to be had where application is made for a reduction of the valuation, 
have been materially varied by the following sections of chap.. 176 of 
1851: 

" § 6. Whenever any person, on his own behalf or on behalf of those 
whom he may represent, shall apply to the assessors of any town or 
ward to reduce the value of his real and personal estate, as set down 
in their assessment roll, it shall be the duty of such assessors to 
examine such person under oath touching the value of his or their said 
real or personal estate, and after such examination they shall fix the 
value thereof at such amount as they may deem just ; but if such person 
shall refuse to answer any question to the value of his real or personal 
estate, or the amount thereof, the said assessors shall not reduce the 
value of such real or personal estate. The examination so taken shall 
be written, and shall be subscribed by the person examined, and shall 
be filed in the ofiice of the town clerk of the town or city in which such 
assessment shall be made; and any person who shall wilfully swear 
falsely, on such examination before the assessors, shall be deemed guilty 
of wilful and corrupt perjury. 

" § 7. The assessors of the several towns and wards of this state shall 
have power to administer oaths to any person applying to them, under 
the provisions of the sixth section of this act." 

Formerly, upon the making of an affidavit, by a person asking a 
reduction, that the value of his personal estate did not exceed a given 
sum, the assessors and trustees were bound to reduce his assessment to 
the amount fixed by him. Under the preceding sections they are 
required, instead of taking a mere afiidavit, to examine him orally, 
under oath to make true answers to such questions as shall be put to 
him touching the value of his real and personal estate. They are at 
liberty to put any question, the answer to which may assist them in 



DISTRICT TAXES. 287 

arriving at a correct conclusion on tlie subject, and are not at liberty to 
reduce his valuation, if he refuses to answer. An affidavit without the 
examination, or without the examination being reduced to writing, is of 
no avail as evidence to reduce the valuation. (12 How. Prac. R., 23Y.) 
After the examination, the assessors are to fix the valuation, and are 
not limited to that fixed by the person examined. 

The provision of § 6, chap. 176 of 1851, above cited, relate as well 
to those persons who apply for a reduction of assessments against them 
in a representative character, as executors, &c., as to those who ask it 
in their own behalf. They are entitled to a deduction for debts due 
from them in their representative character, and are to be examined as to 
the valuation of the property under their control, as such representatives 
in the same manner as if it belonged to them in their private capacity. 

No. 132. Every taxable inhabitant of a district, who 
shall have been within four years set off from any other 
district without his consent, and shall within that period 
have actually paid in such other district, under a lawful 
assessment therein, a district tax for building a school-house, 
shall be exempted by the trustees of the district where he 
shall reside from the payment of any tax for building a 
school-house therein. ( Sec. 98, chap. 480 of 1847. ) 

This exemption relates only to a tax for building a school-house, and 
does not extend to one for repairs, fuel or any other current expense. 
A voluntary contribution for building a house in another district is not 
ground for an exemption, nor is the fact that a person has been taxed, 
if he has not actually paid the tax by the sale of his property or other- 
wise ; nor is he exempt if he has been set oflf upon his own petition or 
consent. (^Digest, ante, p. 40.) 

No. 133. Every district tax shall be assessed, and the tax 
list therefor be made out by the trustees, and a proper war- 
rant attached thereto, within thirty days after the district 
meeting in which the tax shall have been voted. {Sec. 99, 
chap. 480 0/1847, as amended by § 4, chap. 382 0/1849.) 

The supreme court said of this section, in 2 Denio, 161 : " There are 
no negative words in the statute, such as would necessarily make it 
imperative ; and in such a case, for the benefit of the public, the act 
may be done after the time has elapsed ; the statute, as to time, being 
regarded as directory only." The court remark, however : " Had it 



288 DISTRICT TAXES. 

appeared, in this case, that there was such a change in the taxable 
persons or property in the district, between the expiration of the month 
and the time the tax list was made out, a different question would have 
been presented. But it does not appear that there was any such change, 
or that the plaintiff was in any way injured by the delay." The policy 
of the statute is, that the tax shall affect only the persons and property 
subject to the authority of the meeting which imposes it, and such 
persons as shall voluntarily expose themselves to liability while the tax 
list is being made out. Land purchased after a tax is voted, but before 
the tax list is made out, must be assessed to the purchaser, if he has 
taken possession ; and the seller may be taxed for the purchase money 
secured by mortgage, as personal property, although he has reserved 
the possession to a tenant until a period which will not arrive until after 
the tflx list is made out. [Digest, -p. 39.) Persons about to remove 
from the district must be mcluded in the tax list, if inhabitants when 
it is completed ; and. as against them, it is not to be regarded as com- 
pleted until the expiration of thirty days — if it can be, which is at least 
doubtful — until the actual delivery thereof to the collector with a 
warrant attached. 

It is the clear duty of trustees to proceed in the making out of every 
tax list with such dispatch that it may be completed within thirty days, 
whenever practicable. [Digest, p. 22.) It should not be postponed 
because circumstances may render it expedient to delay the collection. 

If the copy of an appeal be served before the trustees have completed 
their assessment, the time during which the appeal is pending is to be 
deducted in counting the thirty days. 

In regard to the/orm. of a tax list, the following directions, prescribed 
by title 2, chap. 13, 1st part of the Revised Statutes, for the government 
of assessors, are appropriate, and it would conduce to accuracy for 
trustees to conform to them, whether it be strictly necessary or not : 

" § 9. They shall prepare an assessment roll, in which they shall set 
down in four separate columns, and according to the best information in 
their power : 

"1. In the first column, the names of all the taxable inhabitants in 
the town or ward, as the case may be ; 

" 2. In the second column, the quantity of land to be taxed to each 
person ; 

" 3. In the third column, the full value of such land, according to the 
definition of the term land, as given in the first title of this chapter ; 

" 4. In the fourth column, the full value of all the taxable personal 
property owned by such person, after deducting the just debts owing 
by him. 



DISTRICT TAXES. 



:89 



"§ 10. Where a person is assessed as trustee, guardian, executor or 
administrator, lie shall be assessed as such, with the addition to his 
name of his representative character, and such assessment shall be car- 
ried out in a separate line from his individual assessment ; and he shall 
be assessed for the value of the real estate held by him in such repre- 
sentative character, at the full value thereof, and for the personal 
property held by him in such representative character, deducting from 
such personal property the just debts due from him in such repre- 
sentative character." 

The followino: are suitable forms of tax list and warrant : 



List of taxes apportioned by the trustees of District No. , in the 

town of Trenton, county of Oneida, on the taxable inhabitants of said 
district, and corporations holding property therein, and upon real 
estate lying within the boundaries of such district, the owners of 
which are non-residents thereof, for the purpose of raising the sum 
of $481.80, laid and charged on the said district according to law, 
viz : $50 for the purchase of an additional site and $400 for building 
thereon, voted by district meeting on the day of ,185 ,$10 

for repairs of the school-house, $8.20 for fuel, and $13.60 for amount 

' of exemptions of indigent inhabitants from rate bill, for term ending 
the day of , 185 . 



NAMES OF TAXABLE mHABI- 
TANTS AND COEPOEATIONS. 



James Thomas 

James Thomas, executor of estate of 

John Thomas, deceased, 

Clark Cotton Manufacturing Company, . . 
John Davison, 



Quantity of 
land taxed. 



Value of 
such land. 



$400 



1,250 
625 



Value of 
taxable person- 
al property. 



$1,025 
25,000 



Total 

amount of 

taxes. 



$6 81 

IT 45 

446 91 

10 64 



[CODE.I 



37 



290 



DISTRICT TAXES. 



Statement and description of unoccupied and unimproved lands of 
non-residents of said district on whicli a tax has been imposed as 
above stated : 



NO. AND DE8CEIPTI0N OF LOTS AND 
PARTS OF LOTS. 


Quant'y of land 

therein liable to 

taxation. 


Valuation of 
such quantity. 


Amount of 
tax. 




10 acres. 
2| « 


$25 00 
6 00 


$0 75 
18 


That part of the southwest quarter of lot No. 23, 
short tract, which lies east of a line running 
north 43^ west from the southeast corner of 
lot No. 12, in the same tract, being the dis- 







To the collector of School District No. , in the town of Trenton, in 

the county of Oneida : 

You are hereby commanded to receive from each of the taxable inhabi- 
tants and corporations named in the foregoing list, and of the owners of 
the real estate described therein, the several sums mentioned in the last 
column of the said list, opposite to the persons and corporations so 
named and to the several tracts of land so described, or so much 
thereof as may be voluntarily paid to you for two successive weeks after 
the delivery to you of this warrant, together with one cent on each 
dollar thereof for your fees ; and after the expiration of the time above 
mentioned to proceed forthwith to collect the residue of the sums not so 
paid in as aforesaid, with five cents on each dollar thereof for your fees; 
and in case any person upon whom such tax is imposed, shall neglect 
or refuse to pay the same, you are to levy the same by distress and sale 
of the goods and chattels of the person or corporation so taxed, in the 
same manner as on warrants issued by the board of supervisors to the 
collectors of taxes in towns; and yea are to make a return of this war- 
rant within thirty days after the delivery thereof to you ; and within 
that time to pay over all moneys collected by virtue hereof to the 
trustees of the said district, or some one of them ; and if any tax on the 
real estate of a non-resident mentioned in the said list shall be unpaid 



DISTRICT TAXES. 291 

at tte time wlien you are required to return this warrant, you are to 
deliver to the trustees of the said district an account thereof, according 
to law. 

Given under our hands this day of , in the year one 

thousand eight hundred and fifty- 

A. B., ^ 

Trustees. 




When the tax has been levied and assessed by all the trustees, their 
judicial duties are at an end, and it is unimportant whether all are 
present at the signing of the warrant, which is but a ministerial act. 
(19 Barb., 167.) It is because the issuing of the warrant is a minis- 
terial act, and the statute prescribes the legal effect of the process, that 
the trustees will be trespassers if they adopt a form which departs from 
it and directs the collector to act otherwise than the law directs. (16 
Wend., 607.) The collector acts for two weeks after the delivery of 
the warrant as mere receiver of taxes ; if he undertakes to levy upon 
property, within that time, he becomes a trespasser. (17 Barb., 14Y.) 

The statute no longer prescribes thirty days, or any other period 
within which the warrant shall be made returnable (18 Barb., 331); 
but the trustees must prescribe a time in the warrant, and should not 
depart from the former usage, except for strong reasons. 

No. 134. The warrant issued and annexed to any tax list 
or rate bill shall be under the hands of the trustees of the 
district, or a majority of them , and it shall not be necessary 
for the said trustees to affix their seals to any such warrant. 
( Sec. 110, chap. 480 of 1847. ) 



COLLECTION OF DISTRICT TAXES. 

No. 135. It shall be the duty of the said trustees, after the 
expiration of the said thirty days, to deliver the said tax list 
and warrant to the collector of the district, and such collector 
is hereby authorized and directed, upon receiving his warrant, 
for two successive weeks to receive such taxes as may be 
voluntarily paid to him ; and in case the whole amount shall 
not be so paid in, the collector shall proceed forthwith to col- 
lect the same. He shall receive for his seiTices, on all sums 
paid in as aforesaid, one per cent, and upon all sums col- 



292 DISTRICT TAXES. 

lected by him, after the expiration of the time mentioned, five 
per cent ; and in case a levy and sale shall be necessarily 
made by such collector, he shall be entitled to traveling fees 
at the rate of six cents per mile, to be computed from the 
school-house in such district. ( Sec. 100, chap. 480 of 1847, as 
amended by § 5, chap. 382 o/'1849.) 

The warrant should not be delivered to the collector until the expi- 
ration of thirty days after the tax is voted. This is necessary, in order to 
secure to the inhabitants the opportunity of paying their taxes with but 
one per cent addition, for collector's fees, during two weeks. He is not 
bound to give them notice that it is in his hands, and they are entitled 
to presume that it is not until thirty days have expired after the meeting 
at which the tax was voted. His fees are not to be included in the tax 
(11 IFmc?., 92), and he is entitled to retain no fees upon sums which 
he is unable to collect. 

A further reason for not issuing the warrant till the expiration of 
thirty days from the day the tax was voted, is because that time is 
allowed for the bringing of an appeal, which operates as a suspension 
of the proceedings, under the vote against which the appeal is brought, 
from the time a copy is duly served and the original forwarded to the 
Department of Public Instruction, until a decision is made. 

The trustees ought to take a written receipt from the collector, for 
the tax list and warrants, specifying the return day and the amount to 
be collected, that they may be prepared with the proper evidence, in 
case it should be necessary to bring an action against him. 

The representatives of a deceased person are not entitled to any delay 
in the payment of a rate bill or tax list, but are bound to pay on 
demand ; and on refusal or neglect, the collector may proceed to sell 
any property found on the premises. By § 27, sub. 2, 2 R. S., 28, 
taxes of all kinds have preference to any other demand. (Per Spencer, 
Supt., 1840.) 

Where trustees receive payments on tax lists or rate bills, they are 
regarded as receiving the same as the agents of the collector ; and the 
latter is entitled to his per centage on the amount so received, and may 
legally collect it by virtue of his warrant. The collector is also entitled 
to his per centage on the amount paid bt/ the trustees, notwithstanding 
no actual exchange of funds is made between the latter and the former 
(Per Young, Supt., 1843.) 



DISTRICT TAXES. 293 

No. 136. If by the neglect of any collector any school 
moneys shall be lost to any school district, which might have 
been collected within the time limited in the warrant deliv- 
ered to him for their collection, he shall forfeit to such district 
the full amomit of the moneys thus lost, and shall account for 
and pay over the same to the trustees of such district, in the 
same manner as if they had been collected. {Sec. 101, c/jap. 
480 0/1847.) 

The collector's power to sell property ceases with the expiration of 
the time limited in the warrant for its retm-n, even under a levy made 
before the return day ; and unless the warrant is renewed by the trus- 
tees, his liability for not collecting becomes fixed. (18 Barb., 330.) It 
behoves him, therefore, not to intermit his efforts to collect a tax upon 
any verbal directions of the trustees. Having commanded him by a 
warrant, he is bound to complete its execution, unless the time is 
extended by the equally solemn act of renewal. Nor is he bound to 
delay, against his own wishes, because the trustees desire it. They may 
sometimes desire to suspend proceedings, where he is indifferent, because 
a warrant, regular on its face, is sufficient for his protection, while they 
may be responsible from a defect of authority not apparent on its face. 
In such a case, he should require a formal certificate from the trustees, 
that they have withdrawn the warrant, and discharged him from the 
further execution thereof, and should make a return thereon to this 
effect : 

" Under the within warrant, I have received and collected of the fol- 
lowing persons named in the tax list thereto attached the sum of money 
set opposite to their respective names, viz: James Thomas, |6.81 ; 
James Thomas, executor of John Thomas, deceased, ^l7.45, &c., &c., 
and have this day ceased from the further execution thereof, by the 
written direction of C. D. and E. F., a majority of the trustees. 
Dated this day of , 185 . 

STEPHEN GRINNER, 

Collector:' 

Transactions of this nature should never be left to rest upon loose 
conversations, nor should any officer of a district permit his responsi- 
bility to the inhabitants to be confounded with that of other officers, 
who may have distinct accounts to render for their conduct in the 
affair. 



294 DISTRICT TAXES. 

Where a warrant runs out in the collector's hands, he is answerable 
for any loss arising from his neglect, notwithstanding such warrant may- 
have been afterwards renewed and delivered to his successor. ( Com. 
School Dec, 308.) 

No. 137. For the recovery of all forfeitures, and of balances 
in the hands of a collector, which he shall have neglected to 
pay over, the trustees of the district may sue in their name 
of office, and shall be entitled to recover the same, with 
interest and costs ; and the moneys recovered shall be applied 
by them in the same manner as if paid without suit. [Sec. 
102, c%;. 480 0/1847.) 

The forfeiture referred to in this section is the amount of money 
which a collector might have collected by the exercise of proper diligence. 
The legal presuruption is, when the return day of a warrant arrives, 
that the collector has all the money in his hands. It is sufficient for 
the trustees to prove that they delivered to him a tax list and vrarrant 
for the collection of a certain amount, and that the time therein speci- 
fied for its return has expired. They may then rest their case, and it 
lies upon the collector to produce in his defence the receipts of the 
trustees for such moneys as he may have paid, his account of non-resi- 
dent taxes, with his affidavit of his inability after diligent efforts to col- 
lect the same, and then to show as to taxable inhabitants named in the 
tax list, that they had no personal property within the district upon 
which he could levy. The trustees may then prove in reply that such 
taxable inhabitants had personal property, outside of the district but 
within the county (or, if the district includes parts of more than one 
county, in either county), and they ought probably to show, in addition, 
that the collector had express notice of the fact, or that he knew it, or 
that it was so far known in the district that the collector, by reasonable 
diligence in making inquiries, would have ascertained such facts as to 
make it his duty to look for property outside of the district. The ques- 
tion is, would an ordinary man — not a particularly keen or covetous 
man — armed with the power to appropriate any chattels of his debtor 
to the payment of a debt due himself, have failed to discover that such 
property was within his reach? 

No. 138. Any collector, to whom any such tax list and war- 
rant may be delivered for collection, may execute the same 
in any other district or town in the same county, or in any other 



DISTRICT TAXES. 295 

county where the district is a joint district, and composed of 
territory from adjoining counties, in the same manner and with 
the like authority as in the district in which the trustees issuing 
the said warrant may reside, and for the benefit of which said 
tax is intended to be collected ; and the bail or sureties of 
any collector, given for the faithful performance of his oflicial 
duties, are hereby declared and made liable for any moneys 
received or collected on any such tax list and warrant, and 
may be prosecuted for the recovery thereof. ( Sec. 103, chap. 
480 0/1847.) 

This section is a legislative recognition of the validity of a bail bond, 
executed by a collector and bis sureties, though the power to enforce 
the exeeution of such a bond, by vacating the collector's office in case 
of his refusal, has been withdrawn. 

The following form may be adopted for a bond, which should be 
obtained whenever practicable : 

Know all men by these presents that we, A. B., C. D., and R. S. 
(the collector and his sureties), are held and firmly bound to E. F., 
G. H., &c., trustees of School District No. , in the town of , 

(or Joint District No. , in the towns of and , 

in the simi of (here insert a sum double the amount to be collected), 
to be paid to the said E. F., G. H., &c., trustees as aforesaid, or to the 
survivor or survivors of them, or their successors ; to the which pay- 
ment, well and truly to be made, we bind ourselves, our heirs, executors 
and administrators, firmly by these presents. Sealed with our seals, and 
dated this day of ,18 , &c. 

Whereas, the above bounden A. B. has been chosen (or appointed, as 
the case may be) collector of the above mentioned School District 
No. , in the town of , in conformity to the statutes relating 

to common schools ; now, therefore, the condition of this obligation is 
such, that if the said A. B. shall well and truly collect and pay over all 
moneys received by him as such collector, and shall in all respects duly 
and faithfully execute all the duties of his office as collector of such dis- 
trict, then this obligation shall be void, otherwise to be in full force and 
virtue. 

Signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of 

A. B., [l. s.] 
C. D., [l. s.] 
R. S., [l. s.] 



296 DISTRICT TAXES. 

Where a collector levies upon property out of his district, he should 
put up notices of the sale of such propertyj as well in the district where 
the sale is to take place as in that of his residence. [Fer Young, Supt,, 
1842.) 

No. 139. The warrants issued by the trustees of school dis- 
tricts, for the collection of any district tax authorized to be 
levied, raised and collected by this title, or for the collection 
of any district school rate bill, shall have the like force and 
effect as w^arrants issued by boards of supervisors of counties 
to collectors of taxes in towns ; and the collector to whom 
any such warrant may be delivered for collection is hereby 
authorized and required to collect, from every person in such 
tax list or rate bill named, the sum therein set opposite to his 
name, or the amount due from any person or persons specified 
therein, in the same manner that collectors are authorized to 
collect town and county charges. {Sec. Ill, chap. 480 of 
1847.) 

It has been before stated that a subsequent statute (§7, chap. 151 of 
1851, ante, JVo. 113) has created a distinction between the force of a 
warrant under a rate bill and that under a tax, in this, viz., that all pro- 
perty exempt from executions in civil actions is exempt from levy for a 
rate bill, while the only property exempt from levy for a tax is the mili- 
tary equipment specified in tiie note to p. 211. 

The collector may levy upon any goods and chattels lawfully in the 
possession of the person liable to pay the tax, that is to say, the person 
named in the tax list, although such person be not the owner of such 
goods and chattels. (13 Wend., 629.) The individual property of an 
executor, administrator or trustee may be taken for a tax imposed on 
him in his representative character, when no property of the testator, 
intestate or cestui que trust can be found. (4 Wend., 223.) But the 
warrant does not protect the collector, if he levies upon property in the 
possession of persons not named in the roll, or whose names, it is appa- 
rent from the roll itself, the assessors ought not to have set down, for 
example, persons whose lands are described in the part of the tax list 
containing the list of lands taxed as non-resident. (16 Barb., 651.) 

The manner in which town collector^ are authorized to collect town 
and county charges is pointed out by the following sections of title 3, 
chap. 13, part 1st of the Revised Statutes : 

" § ] . Every collector, upon receiving the tax list and warrant, shall 
proceed to collect the taxes therein mentioned, and for that purpose 



DISTRICT TAXES. 297 

shall call at least once on tlie person taxed, or at tlie place of his usual 
residence, if in the town or ward for which such collector has been 
chosen, and shall demand payment of the taxes charged to him on his 
property. 

"§ 2. In case any person shall refuse or neglect to pay the tax 
imposed on him, the collector shall levy the same by distress and sale 
of the goods and chattels of the person who ought to pay the same, or 
of any goods and chattels in his possession, wheresoever the same may 
be found within the district of the y>llector; and no claim of property 
to be made thereto by any other person shall be available to prevent a 
sale. 

" § 3. The collector shall give public notice of the time and place of 
sale, and of the property to be sold, at least six days previous to the 
sale, by advertisements to be posted up in at least three public places in 
the town where such sale shall be made. The sale shall be by public 
auction. 

" § 4. If the property distrained shall be sold for more than the 
amount of the tax, the surplus shall be returned to the person in whose 
possession such property was when the distress was made, if no claim 
be made to such surplus by any other person. If any other person 
shall claim such surplus, on the ground that the property sold belonged 
to him, and such claim be admitted by the person for whose tax the 
same was distrained, the surplus shall be paid to such owner ; but if 
such claim be contested by the person for whose tax the property was 
distrained, the surplus moneys shall be paid over by the collector to the 
supervisor of the town, who shall retain the same until the rights of the 
parties shall be determined by due course of law." 

It is provided by the Revised Statutes (vol. 2, 1st ed., p. 522) that 
" No replevin shall lie for any property, taken by virtue of any warrant 
for the collection of any tax, assessment or fine, in pursuance of any 
statute of this state." 

A collector, like other ministerial officers bound to execute process, is 
protected, if the process is regular on its face, and comes from a court 
or body having jurisdiction of the subject matter, if nothing appears in 
such process to apprise him that there was a defect of jurisdiction as 
to the particular person or property to be affected by such process. 
The warrant and tax list constitute a process in the nature of an execu- 
tion, and must be construed together (3 Seld., 517), so that if a defect 
of jurisdiction appear on either, the collector is not protected. But he 
is not bound to inquire whether the trustees have not erred in the 
exercise of their jurisdiction. Thus be was held to be protected, in 
7 Wend., 91, where the trustees had taken the valuations from the 
assessment roll, which was incomplete and subsequently varied, though 
the trustees were held liable as trespassers. But the collector was held 
liable, in 16 Wend., 607, where the warrant was irregular on its face, 

[CODE.I 38 



298 DISTRICT TAXES. 

in commanding him to proceed, "as on execution issued by justices of 
tlie peace," and in 18 Barb., 327, where it commanded him to collect 
five per cent on all sums mentioned in the tax list, Avithout excepting 
those which should be voluntarily paid him in two weeks. 

The rule for the protection of ministerial officers acting under process, 
regular and legal on its face, is held to prevail, even though he has 
knowledge of facts rendering it void for want of jurisdiction. (-5 Hilly 
440.) " He must be governed, and is protected," say the court " by the 
process, and cannot be affected by anything which he has heard or 
learned out of it." 

No. 140. If the sum or sums of mone)^ payable by any 
person named in such tax list or rate bill, shall not be paid 
by him or collected by such warrant within the time therein 
limited, it shall and may be lawful for the trustees to renew 
such warrant in respect to such delinquent person ; or in case 
such person shall not reside within their district at the time 
of making out a tax list or rate bill, or shall not reside therein 
at the expiration of such warrant, and no goods or chattels 
can be found therein wheron to levy the same, the trustees 
may sue for and recover the same in their name of office. 
( Sec. 112, chaf. 480 of 1847. ) 

Chief Justice Nelson, delivering the opinion of the supreme court, in 
24 Wend., 269, where a warrant had been made out but not delivered 
to the collector, and the return day having passed, while it remained in 
the hands of the trustees, it was renewed and then delivered to the col- 
lector, says : " The renewal is in fact but a reissuing of the process, and I 
can perceive no reason against regarding it as an original issuing. Nor 
can the difference be material whether it lies in the hands of the trus- 
tees for a time and is then revived by a renewal, or in the hands of the 
collector unexecuted, which confessedly would justify it." In 3 Hill, 
495, where the objection was that the original warrant was not under 
seal (which, as the law then stood, rendered it void), but the renewal 
was signed by the trustees with their seals affixed, the court say : '* The 
renewal of the warrant made it new process for all the purposes of col- 
lecting the taxes then unpaid; it is the same thing, substantially, as 
though the original warrant had been recited in the renewal ; and thus 
we have a warrant under the hands and seals of the trustees." In 4 
Barb., 444, it was held that the issuing of a new warrant was a good 
execution of the power to renew. In 17 Barb., 145, that a warrant not 



DISTRICT TAXES. 299 

issued until after its renewal, becomes, by delivery to the collector with 
a renewal endorsed, valid and effectual process, as of that date ; and that 
the rights of tax payers and duties of the collector are the same as they 
would have been had the warrant been made out and dated as an 
original process on the day of its delivery to the collector. In 20 Barb., 
165, where three trustees signed the original warrant, but one of them 
refused to sign the renewal ; that the latter was not liable for any act 
done under the renewal and after the original return day. 

The renewal is to be under the hands of the trustees, or a majority 
of them, who are in office at the time of such renewal. For the purpose 
of preserving an authentic history of the process, it is better to append 
a renewal to the original warrant than to issue a new one, except in 
cases where the original may be discovered to have been defective in its 
form. It ought to specify the duration of the time for which it is 
renewed, and to be endorsed upon or written under the original warrant, 
in substantially the following form : 

We hereby renew the within (or above written) warrant in respect 
to delinquents for the period of thirty days. Dated this day 

of , 185 . 

A. B., "^ Trustees of District 
C. D., > No. , in the 

E. F., ) town of 

A second or subsequent renewal requires the consent of the super- 
visor, under the next section. In that case, the words " With the 
approbation of the supervisor of the town of (in which the 

school-house is located," if the district be a joint one), should precede 
the above form. 

Where a warrant is renewed by the trustees, the collector in office at 
the time of such renewal must execute it. 

It being a palpable absurdity to talk of those as delinquents who have 
never been called upon to pay, this language of the statute is an admo- 
nition to the trustees not to suffer a warrant to run out in their hands 
without issuing it. 

The latter clause of the above section, giving the trustees the right to 
sue persons named in a tax list or rate bill, is confined to such as did 
not reside within the district at the time of making out the list or bill, 
or who shall have ceased to reside therein at the expiration of the war- 
rant. It cannot be regarded as having expired until a renewal may have 
run out ; and in respect to both classes of persons, the inability to find 



300 DISTRICT TAXES. 

goods and chattels whereon to levy the tax or rate bill should be proved 
by the sworn return of the collector before a suit is brought. Such 
persons named in a rate bill must have been inhabitants of the district 
at the time they sent their children to school, which they may have 
been without being residents in the legal sense ; in a tax list, they may 
have been taxable inhabitants, under some of the definitions of those 
words contained in the statutes regarding taxation, without ever having 
been residents or having in fact set foot in the district at all. 

No. 141. Whenever the trustees of any school district shall 
discover any error in a tax list or rate bill made out by them, 
they may, with the approbation and consent of" the State 
Superintendent, after refunding any amount that may have 
been improperly collected on such tax list or rate bill, if the 
same shall be required, amend and correct such tax list or 
rate bill, in conformity to law ; 'and whenever more than one 
renewal of a warrant for the collection of any tax list or rate 
bill may become necessary in any district, the trustees may 
make such further renewal, with the written approbation of 
the [supervisor] of the town in which the school-house of said 
district shall be located, to be endorsed upon such warrant. 
( Sec. 113, chap. 480 of 1847, modified in conformitxj to No. 56. ] 

The application to the State Superintendent, for his consent to correct 
an error, should be under the hands of a majority of the trustees, and 
should state specifically wherein the error is supposed to consist, and 
in what manner they propose to amend and correct the tax list or rate 
bill. It will ordinarily be the better mode to revoke the imperfect tax 
list or rate bill and to make out a new one, stating in the heading 
thereof that it is " Amended and corrected with the approbation and 
consent of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, by his. order 
bearing date the day of ,185 ." The order should, of 

course, be carefully filed as evidence of the authority to collect under it. 

The approval of the supervisor may be given by his endorsing on the 
warrant, under the form given in the preceding section, the words 
" Approved this day of , 185 . II. T., Supervisor of ." 

If there be more than one school-house in the district, and they be 
located in different towns, the approval should, as a matter of prudence, 
be signed by the supervisors of all such towns. It is a matter of discre- 
tion with the supervisor, in the first instance, to grant or withhold his 
approbation. If he improperly refuses it, the remedy is by appeal 
upon regular notice to him. 



DUTY AND REPORTS OF TRUSTEES. 301 



DUTY OF TRUSTEES. 

No. 142. If the moneys apportioned to a district by the 
town [supervisor] shall not have been paid, it shall be the 
duty of the trustees thereof to bring a suit for the recovery 
of the same, with interest, against the town [supervisor] in 
whose hands the same shall be, or to pursue such other 
remedy for the recovery thereof as is or shall be given by 
law. {Sec. 114, chajj. 480 of 1847, modi/ied in conformity to 
No. 50.) 

The above section was taken substantially from the Revised Statutes. 
When originally enacted, all tbe money apportioned to a district was 
to be paid to the trustees. The mode of payment now, so far as it relates 
to tbe money apportioned for teachers' wages, is confined to paying to 
teachers the amount of orders drawn in their favor by the trustees. 
This section w^ould seem to authorize the trustees to bring an action 
against the supervisor, who, having money in his hands applicable to 
the payment of an order, has refused to accept and pay it. Inasmuch 
as the drawing of a valid order is an assignment to the teacher of so 
much of the fund in the hands of the supervisor which the law renders 
it his duty to transfer, the money may be regarded as held, after the 
drawing the order, for the use of the teacher, so as to enable him also 
to maintain an action. There is nothing to regret in the supervisor's 
being exposed, under such circumstances, to two suits for the same 
money. His remedy is to pay the teacher, with interest, and then he 
may discharge himself of the action of the trustees by the payment of 
their costs. 



OF THE ANNUAL REPORTS OF TRUSTEES. 

No. 143. The trustees of each school district shall, between 
the first and fifteenth days of January^ in every year, make 
and transmit a report, in writing, to the [school commissioner, 
to be deposited with the town clerk of the town in which 
each district is situated], dated on the first day of January, 
in the year in which it shall be transmitted. ( Sec. 115, chaj). 
480 of 1847, modified in conformity to No. 67, ante. ) 

The annual report of the trustees is to be addressed to the school 
commissioner having jurisdiction of the town m which the school-house 



302 REPORTS OF TRUSTEES. 

of the district is located, and the trustees must deposit it before the 
fifteenth day of January in the clerk's office of that town. In the case 
of a joint district, having two or more school-houses situated in different 
towns in the same county, the original site should control, if preserved ; 
otherwise, that of the oldest or principal school-house. If the district 
embraces parts of two or more counties, as many reports will be neces- 
sary ; one of which must be deposited with the town clerk of each town. 
It is of the highest importance to the district that the annual report 
should be promptly completed and deposited with the proper town clerk. 
If the report exhibits any failure to comply with the requirements of 
law, it is all the more important to have it promptly in the hands of the 
commissioner, as no relief can be obtained by the trustees until they 
shall have shown that it has been sent by them to the town clerk. A 
single trustee should make the report, if his colleagues neglect or refuse 
to complete it, or to sign that made by him ; and in such case he should, 
in the report itself, state the reason why it bears a single signature. So, 
in respect to each item of information, he should give the facts so far as 
his own knowledge extends; explaining at the conclusion that the 
report is imperfect by reason of the other trustees neglecting to supply 
him with the necessary statistics. The trustee who makes this report 
will thereby exempt himself from the penalty of ten dollars, and the 
further forfeiture to which his colleagues are subject, under a subsequent 
section, for wilfully neglecting to make it. 

No. 144. Every such report, signed and certified by a 
majority of the trustees making it, shall be delivered to the 
[town clerk of the town in which the school -house of each 
district is situated, from whom the said commissioners shall 
obtain the same], and shall specify: 

1. The whole time any school has been kept in their district 
during the year ending on the day previous to the date of 
such report, and distinguishing what portion of the time such 
school has been kept by qualified teachers ; 

2. The amount of moneys received from the town superin- 
tendent [and supervisor] during such year, and the manner 
in which such moneys have been expended ; 

3. The number of children taught in the district during 
such year ; 

4. The number of children, residing in the district on the 
last day of December previous to the making of such report, 
between the ages of four and twenty-one, and the names of 
the parents or other persons with whom such children shall 



REPOETS OF TRUSTEES. 303 

respectively reside, and the number of children residing with 
each ; 

5. The amount of money paid for teachers' wages, in addi- 
tion to the public money paid therefor, the amount of taxes 
levied in said district for purchasing school-house sites, for 
building, hiring, purchasing, repairing and insuring school- 
houses, for fuel, for supplying deficiencies in rate bills, for 
district libraries, or -for any other purpose allowed by law, 
and such other information in relation to the schools and the 
districts as the superintendent of common schools may from 
time to time require. ( Sec. 116, chap. 480 of 1847, modified in 
covformity to § 8, chap. 382 of 1849, §■§ 12 and 13, chap. 151 
0/^1851, and Nos. 12 and 67, ante.) 

Blank forms for tte reports of trustees are annually prepared at the 
Department of Public Instruction, with printed instructions in regard 
to the mode of filling them up, and will be transmitted through the 
school commissioners to the town clerks, for the use of the districts. 
They will, from time to time, require other information than that par- 
ticularly specified in the above section, as may be necessary to enable 
the superintendent to lay before the legislature a report of the actual 
work accomplished in educating the children of the state, and in diff'us- 
ing the means of progressive education among the adults by the district 
libraries. The remarks here to be made relate only to those permanent 
items of statistics required by the statute itself. 

1. In order to give eff'ect to the provisions of JVos. 30 and 31, ante, 
it will be necessary that minute accuracy be required in stating the 
whole time any school — that is, any public district school under the 
charge of the trustees — has been kept in the district during the year 
beginning on the first day of January and ending with the thirty-first 
day of December preceding the report. The proper mode of stating the 
facts, so as to preclude any error, would be for the trustees to specify 
the names of the teachers, and the period of actual instruction by each, 
giving the number of weeks and days, and date of the beginning and 
ending of the period of actual instruction by each, and stating, in 
respect to each, whether he or she was qualified, and if (which ought 
never to be the case) the teacher's certificate bears date subsequent to 
the commencement of his term of instruction, giving the date of such 
certificate. The manner may be best illustrated by a specimen form : 



3t)'4 REPORTS OF TRUSTEES. 

"To tte school commissioner for the first assembly district of the 

county of Oneida. 

The undersigned trustees of School District No. , the school- 
house of which is situated in the town of , in the county of 
Oneida, certify and report that during the year ending on the 31st day 
of December, 1857, school has been kept in their district, and the 
periods of instruction have been as follows, viz : by James Mead, a 
qualified teacher, between the 2d day of January, 185Y, and the 10th 
day of March, 1857, nine weeks and three days; by Ellen Craft, a 
qualified teacher, during the same time, nine weeks and three days, and 
by her between the 10th day of March and the 1st day of May, seven 
weeks ; by Peter Slow, a teacher who taught three weeks while unquali- 
fied, but was qualified on the 1st day of April, 1857, four weeks, while 
qualified, his period of actual instruction beginning on the 10th day of 
March and ending on the 1st day of May, 1857 ; by Ellen Craft, a 
qualified teacher, between the 15th day of May, 1857, and the 22d 
Sept., 1857, eighteen weeks and four daj^s; and by Mary Green, a 
qualified teacher, at the same time, between the 15th day of May, 1857, 
and the 22d Sept., 1857, eighteen weeks and four days, making in the 
aggregate a period of actual instruction, by two qualified teachers at 
the same time, of thirty-two weeks, or seven months and two weeks, 
and by one unqualified teacher, in addition, for three weeks." 

A statement of the facts, as they actually occurred, it is always easy 
to make, and this alone will give the commissioner the proper materials 
to determine whether the district is entitled to one or two district 
quotas. 

2. The amount of moneys received from the town superintendent 
[and supervisor] during such year, and the manner in which such 
moneys have been expended- 

The amount of money received by the district includes as well that 
paid for its use to teachers upon the orders of trustees, as that received 
directly by the trustees, for library purposes, from the apportionment of 
state moneys, and the income of school lots, fines under the act to sup- 
press gambling [chap. 504 of 1851), or the revenue of local funds 
which may come through the hands of the supervisor. The amount to 
be stated must include all moneys received by any of the trustees 
during the year, whether they be in oflSce at the time of making the 
report or not. In stating the manner in which they have been 
expended, the amount applied upon the order of the trustees to the 



REPORTS OF TRUSTEES. 305 

compensation of teachers duly licensed must be specified, the amount 
applied to the purchase of books for the library, the amount applied 
to the purchase of maps, globes, black-boards and school apparatus, speci- 
fying particularly the articles purchased, and the dates of the resolution 
of the district meeting, and of the permission of the State Superintendent 
under the authority of which the expenditure was made. If any 
moneys remain unexpended, the amount, and the reason why it has not 
been expended, should be stated ; as, for example, that it is in the hands 
of a trustee who is a defaulter, naming him. 

It will be necessary to discriminate between the moneys received 
from the apportionment made by the State Superintendent and the school 
commissioners. Upon this point, instructions will be found upon the 
printed blanks, and the form of the report itself transmitted to the town 
clerks. 

3. The number of children taught in the district during such year. 
Under this head, the whole number of children who have received 

instruction in the district school since the first day of January preceding 
is to be stated, without regard to the fact whether their attendance has 
been long or short, or whether they or their parents were residents or 
non-residents. The fact must be ascertained from an examination of 
the sworn list of attendants at school, kept by the teachers. 

4. The number of children residing in the district on the last day of 
December previous to the making of such report, over the age of four 
years and under twenty-one years of age, and the names of the parents 
or other persons with whom such children shall res23ectively reside, and 
the number of children residing with each. 

In order to carry into eff'ect the provisions of No. 12, ante, the tras- 
tees should specify how many of the children enumerated by them are 
Indians, and should separate them in their list of parents and guardians 
from other children. The public money to which they are ratably 
entitled is to be devoted exclusively to their education. There may be 
districts containing but few Indian children, and these may resort to 
the district school for instruction, instead of attending a separate Indian 
school. In such cases, the money apportioned on their account may, 
under a special order by the State Superintendent, to be obtained upon 
a verified representation of all the facts in the case, be allotted to the 
district in which they reside or attend school ; but the fund is to be kept 
separate, and the district has no right to it except that which may be 
derived under such an order. 

[Code.] 39 



306 REPORTS OF TRUSTEES. 

Comment in regard to the character of the residence of children, 
their parents, guardians or employers, in order to entitle the trustees to 
include them in the enumeration, will be found under No. 14(5, post. 

5. The amount of money paid for teachers' wages, in addition to the 
public money paid therefor, the amount of taxes levied in said district 
for purchasing school-house sites, for building, hiring, purchasing and 
insuring school-houses, for fuel, for supplying deficiencies in rate bills, 
for district libraries, or for any other purpose allowed by law, and 
such other information in relation to the schools and the districts as the 
superintendent of common schools may from time to time require : The 
total amount of money paid for teachers' wages, in addition to that 
derived from the apportionment of the state funds, is to be given in full, 
without regard to the source whence received, rate bills, local funds, 
tuition bills of non-residents, fines or donations. 

The above provision recognizes the right to levy a tax for insuring 
school-houses, though it is not mentioned in the enumeration of the 
powers of district meetings in No. 95, ante, except as it may be deemed 
to be included in that of voting a tax " to keep in repair" the school- 
house and its appendages. 

In stating the amount of the tax levied during the year for the various 
purposes mentioned, those only should be included for the collection of 
which a warrant has actually been delivered to the collector between 
January 1st and December 31st. Unless this rule is carefully observed, 
the same tax may be reported in two successive years ; the one in which 
it was voted and the warrant issued, and the other in which it was 
actually collected and paid to the trustees. 

No. 145. It shall not be lawful for the trustees of any 
school district to include in their annual returns the names of 
any children who are supported at a county poor-house or 
orphan asylum. {Sec. 117, chap. 480 of 184:7.) 

This provision was intended to be a reenactment of § 6, chap. 277 
of 1831, by which the duty of educating pauper children was imposed 
upon the towns and counties responsible for their support. The word 
not was omitted, by mistake, in the printed volume of Laws of 1847. 
Upon examination, it is found in the manuscript volume of original 
laws, in the office of the secretary of state. By chap. 261 of 1850 it 
was enacted : 

" § 1. The schools of the several incorporated orphan asylum societies 
within this state, other than those in the city of New-York, shall parti- 



EEPORTS OF TRUSTEES. SOT 

cipate in the distribution of the school moneys, in the same manner and 
to the same extent, in proportion to the number of chikh-en educated 
therein, as the common schools m their respective cities or districts. 

" § 2. The schools of said societies shall be subject to the rules and 
regulations of the common schools in such cities or districts, but shall 
remain under the immediate management and direction of the said 
societies, as heretofore." 

It is obvious that it is inconsistent with the provisions of the act of 
1850 to consider so much of No. 145 as prohibited the enumeration of 
children in an incorporated orphan asylum within the district as any 
longer remaining in force. Deprived of their natural guardians, they 
are to be deemed the wards of the societies which furnish them an 
asylum, and as having their residence in it. 

In regard to children in poor-houses, it will be seen from the general 
principles stated in the comment on No. 91, ante, that they do not 
acquire a residence in the district where the poor-house is situated by 
reason of their being within its walls. Nor ought they to be enumerated 
in the district from which they removed to the poor-house, for reasons 
stated in the comment to the next section. 

No. 146. The annual reports of trustees of school districts, 
of children residing in their district, shall include all over four 
and under twenty-one years of age who shall, at the date of 
such report, actually be in the district, composing a part of 
the family of their parents or guardians or employers if such 
parents, guardians or employers reside at the time in such 
district, although such residence be temporary ; but such report 
shall not include children belonging to the family of any 
person who shall be an inhabitant of any other district in this 
state in which such children may by law be included in the 
reports of its trustees. ( Sec. 118, chap. 480 of 1847. ) 

It was the object of this section to relax the strictness of the rule 
which, as might be inferred from the terms of the 4th clause of No. 144, 
ante, would restrict the enumeration to those children who had a fixed 
and permanent legal residence in the district at the date of the trustees' 
report. It now admits to the schools upon the same terms as residents, 
and directs the trustees to enumerate, all children over 4 and under 21 
who, at the date of the report, are acttially in the district, composing 
part of the family of their employers, &c., residing at the time in the 
district, although such residence, that is, of the employers, parents, &c., 
be temporary. It regards domestics as composing a part of the family 



308 REPORTS OF TRUSTEES. 

of their employers. There is some obscurity in the section, from the 
fact that the word family is used in two distinct senses. These, as given 
by Webster, are : " 1. The collective body of persons who live in one 
house and under one head or manager ; a household, including parents, 
children and servants, and, as the case may be, lodgers or hoarders. 
2. Those who descend from a common progenitor ; a tribe or race ; 
kindred, lineage." The statute excludes mere boarders or lodgers; 
while in the first part of the section it obviously includes those who are 
in good faith employed in the family. There are, however, sometimes 
persons who pay for their board and lodging by devoting a part of their 
day to work, in the service of the household, while the rest is spent in 
attendance at school. If such persons belong to the family — in the 
second sense of that word, as above quoted — of an inhabitant of any other 
district of this state, then they are not to be enumerated ; unless their 
abode in the family of their employer was primarily taken with a view 
to earn their subsistence by service, and not as a mere cover for their 
attending school in one district in preference to another where they 
might have attended. The enumeration is made with a view to the 
apportionment of money for the succeeding year ; and it is to determine 
what amount of money will be needed for the education of those children 
who are accidentally in it, either because their parents or other permanent 
guardians reside there, or because their circumstances require them to 
earn a livelihood in a family, not that of their parentage. The district 
which is bound to furnish them with instruction, should receive an 
apportionment on their account ; but they cannot, arbitrarily, select the 
districts in which they shall be enumerated or attend school. The 
cases on pages 16, 23, 38, 49 and 91, Digest, ante, taken together, will 
be found to support this construction. [See 3 Foster'' s JV. If. R., 510.) 

As to a person who is not an inhabitant of some other district in this 
state, all the children belonging to his family are to be reported, and so 
are children residing in the district whose parents or guardians do not 
reside therein, if such parents or guardians reside elsewhere than in a 
district of this state ; provided the residence of such children is in a 
family, and not in a mere boarding school or other establishment for 
the purpose of edacation. 

All persons more than four and under twenty-one years of age are to 
be enumerated, although themselves the masters or mistresses of families. 

No. 147. The trustees of school districts shall not enume- 
rate and include in their annual reports any Indian children 



EEPORTS OF TRUSTEES. 309 

residing on Indian reservations where schools are taught. 
(Sec. 119, chap. 480 o/1847.) 

This section is retained as a part of the history of legishxtion. School 
districts rarely inchide any portion of an Indian reservation. In those 
that do, the Indian children Avithin the bounds of the district are to be 
enumerated separately and apart from other children, for the reasons 
given in the comment on the fourth clause of No. 144, ante, until the 
superintendent, in the exercise of the power given by No. 12, shall other- 
wise direct. 

No. 148. All children included in the reports of the trustees 
of any school district shall be entitled to attend the schools 
of such district; and whenever it shall be necessary for the 
accommodation of the children in any district, the trustees 
thereof may hire, temporarily, any room or rooms for the 
keeping of schools therein, and the exj)ense thereof shall be a 
charge upon such district. {Sec. 120, chap. 480 of 184.7.) 

Children over four and under five years of age are to be included in 
the reports of the trustees, but their right to attend school must be 
regarded as taken away by the new definition of the class of persons 
thus entitled, contained in the next section, which restricts it to those 
over Jive years old. Children of so tender an age, as five or even six, 
can scarcely receive any benefit from the literary instruction given at 
a school, which is not more than outweighed by the injury to their 
health resulting from coufinement, and the distaste for future study 
which they imbibe. Such simple elements of knowledge as they can 
learn are best imparted to them at home, in the intervals of healthful 
play and the freedom of domestic intercourse. 

The right to attend schools in a district is the right to attend some 
one school or department which, in the judgment of the trustees, and of 
the teacher, under their general supervision, is best adapted to the 
education of the individual scholar, consistently with the progress of the 
other pupils of the district. It is not the right of the parent or pupil 
arbitrarily to select the school or department which the latter shall 
attend. The law has vested the power in the trustees to regulate the 
system of distribution and classification, and when this power is reason- 
ably exercised, without being abused or perverted by colorable pre- 
tences, their decision must be deemed conclusive. (5 Cicsh. Mass. 
Hep., 208.) The remedy for an error on their part is to be found in an 



310 REPORTS OF TRUSTEES. 

appeal. For a malicious abuse of their power, an action might be sus- 
tained in the name and for the benefit of the child. (14 Barb., 222.) 
The cases in which they may exclude children will be considered under 
the next section. 

It is for the trustees to judge when it is necessary, for the accommo- 
dation of the children, to hire rooms temporarily for the keeping of 
schools, for the expense of which they have the right to levy a tax, 
without any vote of the district. They are bound to make reasonable 
provision for the accommodation of all who desire to attend school ; and 
if the school-house is too small for them, or is out of repair, or is prac- 
tically inaccessible to any considerable number, from severe snows in 
winter, or other fortuitous circumstances, they should not hesitate to 
exercise the power. They are not put in office for the purpose of 
saving money to the tax payers, but to see to it, that all the children 
obtain instruction, or owe their failure to do so to the wilful neglect of 
themselves or their parents. 

No. 149. Common schools in the several school districts in 
this state shall be free to all persons residing in the district, 
over five and under twenty-one years of age, as hereinafter 
provided. Persons not resident ot a district may be admitted 
into the schools kept therein, with the approbation in writing 
of the trustees thereof, or a majority of them. ( Sec. 1, chap. 
1510/1851.) 

The power to admit non-resident children to the schools of a district 
is vested exclusively in its trustees. (^Digesi,, pp. 95, 100.) The latter 
case contains the necessary instruction as to the manner in which they 
should exercise it. Pupils are not to be encouraged to withdraw from 
the schools of their own districts. By doing so, they enfeeble its pecu- 
niary resources, aggravate the rate bills of their neighbors, and diminish 
the inducements of their parents and friends to exert their influence to 
maintain a good school in their own district. A teacher, moreover, 
ought not to have the additional labor thrown upon him of instructing 
non-residents, without his compensation being increased, unless he 
entered into his contract with full knowledge of the number he was to 
instruct. 

Tlie right to enjoy the benefit of common schools, established for all 
the inhabitants, is, as is well put in 8 Gush. Mass. R., 164, " a common, 
not an exclusive personal right ; then, like other common rights, that of 
way for instance, it must be exercised under such limitations and 



REPORTS OF TRUSTEES. 311 

restrictions, that it shall not interfere with the equal and coextensive 
rights of others. Take the case of contagious disease : can it be 
doubted that the presence of a pupil infected could be lawfully prohibited, 
not for any fault or crime or wrong conduct, but simply because his 
attempt to insist on his right to attend, under such circumstances, would 
be dangerous and noxious, and so an interruption of the equal and com- 
mon right?" In that case, the court held that the trustees have the 
right to exclude a child for open, gross immorality, manifested by licen- 
tious propensities, language, manners and habits, though not manifested 
by acts of licentiousness or immorality within the school, deeming it 
" as necessary, in the unreserved intercourse of pupils of the same school, 
as well without as within its precincts, to preserve the pure minded, 
ingenuous and unsuspecting children of both sexes from the contamina- 
ting influence of those of depraved sentiments and vicious propensities 
and habits, as from those infected with contagious diseases." 

The analogy suggests the rule. Children may be excluded, not for 
punishment merely, but for the protection of others from such injurious 
example and influence as would entirely defeat the purposes for which 
schools are instituted. It is to be remembered that among the objects 
of instruction is not only to deter from vice, but to reclaim those who 
are capable of reformation, and to correct bad habits which may result 
from parental neglect, or, what is more deplorable, from parental exam- 
ple. To deal gently with the erring, and especially with erring child- 
hood, is the dictate of humanity, policy and duty. To abandon them 
to their evil courses is a step involving the most serious responsibility, 
never to be taken until remonstrance and persuasion have been 
exhausted. 

Such violent insubordination against reasonable and proper regulations 
of the school as to render it impossible to maintain necessary discipline 
and order, will justify the trustees in the expulsion of a pupil ; but it is 
their duty to see, before resorting to the final extremity, whether there 
may not be fault on the side of the teacher as well as the scholar, and 
to endeavor, in such case, to reconcile the diff"erence, without impairing 
the self-respect of either party. Children have rights as well as their 
elders ; they are as keenly sensible of oppression, and naturally revolt 
against power, wantonly exercised for the sake of exhibiting itself. 
Being the weaker party, they suff'er in their school days a great deal of 
injustice and often of outrage. The best of teachers have human infir- 
mities, and it is an incident of their trying calling to aggravate them. It 



312 KEPORTS OF TRUSTEES. 

is for the trustees to temper power with benignity, and administer justice 
in the spirit of tolerance and mercy. 

No. 16U. Where a school district is formed out of two or 
more adjoining towns {not in the same county), it shall be the 
duty of the trustees of such district to make and transmit a 
report to the [school commissioner] for each of the towns 
out of which such district shall be formed, within the same 
time and in the same manner as is required by sections one 
hundred and fifteen and one hundred and sixteen of this act ; 
distinguishing the number of children over the age of four and 
under twenty-one years, residing in each part of a district 
which shall be in a different town from the other parts, and 
the number of children taught, and the amount of school 
moneys received from each part of the district. {Sec. 121, 
cA«p. 480 0/1847.) 

The words in italics, within the parenthesis, do not belong to the text 
of the statute. They are inserted to make it conform to No. 67, ante. 
The sections referred to in the text, are Nos. 143 and 144. 

No. 15i. Where any neighborhood shall be set off by itself, 
the inhabitants of such separate neighborhood shall annually 
meet together and choose one trustee ; whose duty it shall 
be, every year, within the time limited for making district 
reports, to make and transmit a report in writing, bearing 
date on the first day of January, in the year in which it shall 
be transmitted, to the [town clerk] of the town from which 
such neighborhood shall be set off, specifying the number of 
children, over the age of four and under twenty-one years, 
residing in such neighborhood, the amount of moneys received 
from the town superintendent [and supervisor] since the date 
of last report, and the manner in which the same has been 
expended. {Sec. 122, chap. 480 of ]847, modified in conformity 
to No. 67.) 

A separate neighborhood constitutes a part of a district in some 
adjoining state, within which its school-house is situated, and whose 
affairs in general are managed by officers under a foreign jurisdiction. 
The trustee mentioned in the statute is to be elected by the inhabitants 
of this state within such district, ajid must himself be an inhabitant of 
that portion thereof within the boundaries of New-York, so that he may 
be amenable to its laws. The commissioner cannot receive a report 



DUTY OF TRUSTEES. 313 

from a citizen of another state, and if one is tendered, should give notice 
to the inhabitants to elect another person as trustee. 

No. 152. Every trustee of a school district or separate 
neighborhood, who shall wilfully sign a false report to the 
[school commissioner] of his town, with the intent of causing 
such [school commissioner] to apportion and pay to his district 
or neighborhood a larger sum than its just proportion of the 
school moneys of the town, shall for each offence forfeit the 
sum of twenty-five dollars, and shall also be deemed guilty of 
a misdemeanor. ( Sec. 123, chap. 480 of 1847. ) 

All the trustees who jointly commit the offence may be jointly sued. 
(1 Denio, 540.) As to an omission, the rule is otherwise. In order to 
put the trustees clearly in the wrong, and disprove any pretence of 
inadvertance or misapprehension on their part, the commissioner should 
notify them of any error which he finds in their report and request them 
to correct it, before reporting them to the supervisor for prosecution. 
In order to present for decision any question involving reasonable doubt, 
the simplest way would be for him to inform them in writing at the 
same time, and that as early as possible, that he declines making any 
apportionment to their district on account of certain persons, naming them, 
included in their enumeration of pupils, and that his decision thereupon 
will become conclusive in thirty days, unless within that time they forward 
an appeal to the State Superintendent, duly verified, and serve a copy 
upon him, or unite with him in a written statement of the facts to be 
submitted. It would be well for him to proceed to state the facts as he 
understands them, and request them to signify their concurrence therein 
by signing the same. If an apportionment ought to be made before a 
final decision is obtained, he should make it contingent in respect to the 
pupils in dispute. 

No. 153. All property now vested in the trustees of any 
school district for the use of schools in the district, or which 
may be hereafter transferred to such trustees for that purpose, 
shall be held by them as a corporation. ( Sec. 124, chan. 480 
0/1847.) 

The original provision of the act of 1819, § 29, chap. 161, from 
which the above is taken, was enacted for the purpose of vesting in the 
trustees property which had been dedicated or granted for school objects 
before its passage. The principal incidents of a corporation are, to have 

[Code.] 34 



314 DUTY OF TRUSTEES. 

perpetual succession and existence by its corporate name, where no 
period is limited by its charter, and the capacity to hold real and 
personal estate for its corporate purposes, as an artificial body, wholly 
distinct from the individuals who from time to time may compose it. 

No. 154. The trustees of each school district shall, once in 
each year, render to the district, at its annual district meeting, 
a just and true account, in writing, of all moneys received by 
them respectively for the use of their district, and of the 
manner in which the same shall have been expended, which 
account shall be delivered to the district clerk, and be filed 
and recorded by him. ( Sec. 125, chap. 480 of 1847. ) 

Each trustee is bound to render an account, in writing, of the money 
which he has received and expended. They may, and indeed should, 
unite and present one account, stating the receipts and disbursements 
of all ; but as each of them is severally liable to a penalty for omitting to 
do so, the way for him to escape it is to be prepared with an account 
of his own financial operations during the year, and submit it to the 
annual meeting. He is not entitled to charge in the account, or to retain, 
any sum to remunerate him for his personal services as trustee. ( Digest, 
p. 84:.) The meeting has no duty to perform in examining the account 
and passing upon the question of its correctness. When an account has 
been rendered, the supervisor may bring an action for the penalty, if it 
is false, and the trustee who made it remains in office ; but the trustee 
will not be removed until its falsehood shall have been established in 
such a suit. (Digest, p. 102.) The district meeting have no power to 
prevent him, or the successors of the defaulting trustee, from bringing 
an action. (Digest, p. 25.) 

No. 155. Any balance of such moneys, which shall appear 
from such account to remain in the hands of the trustees, or 
either of them, at the time of rendering the account, shall 
immediately be paid to some one or more of their successors 
in office. {Sec. 126, chap. 480 of 184:7.) 

When this section was originally enacted, all the trustees went out 
of oflSce at each annual meeting, and were, of course, bound immediately 
to pay over any money in their hands to their successors. But one 
trustee in office has the same right to the custody of public money as 
another; unless the trustees by a resolution have constituted one of 
their number treasurer, or have appointed a bank or other trustworthy 



DUTY OF TRUSTEES. 315 

depositary to receive it. Among the general powers conferred by the 
Revised Statutes upon every corporation, as such — and the trustees are 
a corporation in respect to the property of the district — one is: "To 
make by-laws, not inconsistent with any existing law, for the manage- 
ment of its property." It would often be a judicious exercise of this 
power to constitute one of their number treasurer, requiring him to give 
adequate security to the trustees, in their corporate capacity and name 
of office, and directing the collector to pay all taxes and rate bills to 
him. If a third person were appointed to act as the treasurer, where 
a convenient one can be found who is willing to give adequate security, 
it would have the farther advantage, that no disbursement could be 
made by him, except upon the written order of two of the trustees. In 
such a case, all of the trustees would be responsible, if they took insuffi- 
cient security from the person entrusted with the money. 

In regard to the liability of one trustee for the act of another, the 
general rule is, that it is the duty of each one to do all in his power to 
protect the trust property from loss by the acts of his colleagues. He 
ought not, therefore, to join in doing any act or in carrying into effect 
any arrangement by which the trust property is unnecessarily taken out 
of the joint protection and control of all the trustees, and is placed 
within the sole power and at the mercy of one or more of their number, 
without expecting to be held responsible for the consequences. It is 
laid down in Hill on Trustees, p. 310, that as a general rule the trustee 
so acting will be held liable in case of a loss by the default of his col- 
league. There are exceptions, as in the case where money is committed 
to one for the purpose of making an immediate payment ; but money 
ought not to be suffered to remain in the hands of one trustee, for any 
considerable time, without security. Their safety lies in considering 
themselves as presumptively liable for all money which comes into the 
hands of any one of them, and conducting with the vigilant care to its 
speedy disbursement or ample security which such a belief is calculated 
to inspire. 

No. 156. Every trustee who shall refuse or neglect to ren- 
der such account, or to pay over any balance so found in his 
hands, shall for each offence forfeit the sum of twenty-five 
dollars, {Sec. 127, chap. 480 o/1847.) 

It has been held, under this section (1 Denio, 230), that "it plainly 
contemplates a several penalty upon each and every trustee who shall 



316 DUTY OF TRUSTEES. 

so neglect or refuse to perform his duty, apd not a penalty upon all, 
jointly, who may be in default. If more than one is in default, each 
must be sued." 

No. 157. It shall be the duty of his successors in office to 
prosecute without delay, in their name of office, for the 
recovery of such forfeiture ; and the moneys recovered shall 
be applied by them to the use and benefit of their district 
schools. {Sec. 128, chap. 480 o/1847.) 

This section takes effect only when the trustee in default has gone 
out of office. He can have no successors until that event ; but when it 
has happened, the trustees in office are his successors, although they 
may have been his colleagues, and no person has been appointed or 
elected to fill the vacancy. Provision is made in a subsequent section 
for prosecuting a defaulting trustee, still in office, by the supervisor. 

No. 158. Such successors shall also have the same remedies 
for the recovery of any unpaid balance, in the hands of a former 
trustee or his representatives, as are given to the tow^n 
[supervisor] against a former tov^^n superintendent and his 
representatives ; and the moneys recovered shall be applied 
by them to the use of their district, in the same manner as if 
they had been paid without suit. {Sec. 129, chajj. 480 of 
1847, modified in conformity to No. 53. ) 

No. 159. Every trustee of a school district who shall, while 
in office, neglect or refuse annually to render an account of 
the moneys received by him as such trustee, shall, for each 
oifence, forfeit the sum of twenty-five dollars ; and it shall be 
the duty of the [supervisor] of the town in which such trustee 
may reside to prosecute without delay, in his name of 
office, for the recovery of such forfeiture ; and the moneys 
recovered shall be applied by such [supervisor] to the use 
and benefit of the district school of the district to which such 
defaulting trustee shall belong. ( Sec. 130, chap. 480 of 1847, 
modified in confoi'mity to No. 53.) 

The action is to be brought by the supervisor of the town in which 
the trustee resides, so that, if two or more trustees are in default, resid- 
ing in different towns, actions must be brought by as many different 
supervisors. 



APPEALS. 317 

No. 160. Such [supervisor] shall also have the same reme- 
dies for the recovery of any unpaid balance of moneys, in the 
hands of such delinquent trustee in office, as are given to the 
[supervisor] in office against a former town superintendent ; 
and the moneys recovered shall be applied by such town 
superintendent to the use of the district to which the same 
may belong, and be paid over to the trustee or trustees of 
such district who are not in default. ( Sec. 131, chap. 480 of 
1847, modified in conformity to No. 53. ) 

The action, like that under the preceding section, is to be brought by 
the supervisor of the town in wliich the defaulter resides. In order to 
justify such action against a trustee in office, it must appear that he has 
refused to apply the money in his hands to the service of the district, 
in payment of a valid demand against it, or in execution of some duty 
imposed upon the trustees by vote of the district, or by law in cases 
where they are authorized to make expenditures without the vote of 
the district, or that he has refused or omitted, after a demand, to deposit 
such balance, in compliance with a resolution of the trustees. 



APPEALS. 

No. 161. Any person conceiving himself aggrieved, in con- 
sequence of any decision made, 

1. By any school district meeting ; 

2. By the [school commissioner] in the forming or altering, 
or in refusing to form or alter any school district, or in refus- 
ing to pay any school moneys to any such district ; 

3. By the trustees of any district in paying any teacher, 
or in refusing to pay him, or in refusing to admit any scholar 
gratuitously into any school ; 

4. Or concerning any other matter under the present title, 
may appeal to the superintendent, who is hereby authorized 
and required to examine and decide the same, and the decision 
of the State Superintendent shall be final and conclusive. 
\Sec. 132, chap. 48%^ 1847.) 

This section was included, as it is understood, by a clerical error in 
the engrossment of § 16, chap. 382 of 1849, among those thereby 
repealed. The repealing section was amended by chap. 78 of 1853, so 
as to omit § 132 from the list of sections repealed in chap. 480 of 1847, 
and thereby to restore and reSnact it. It may be worth while to state 



318 APPEALS. 

that, while the repealing clause of the statute of 1849 was in force, the 
jurisdiction of the State Superintendent to hear and decide appeals 
might have been upheld by virtue of other statutes. By § Y, chap. 133 
of 1843, all appeals then authorized by law (and the law then in force 
was identical with No. 161) were required to be first presented to the 
county superintendents. "Upon the abolition of the office of county 
superintendents, in 184*7, it was enacted by chap. 388 of that year as 
follows : 

"§ 1. All appeals, now authorized by law to be brought to a county 
superintendent of common schools, may, after the third day of December, 
one thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, be brought directly to the 
superintendent of common schools, who is hereby authorized and 
required to examine and decide the same, and whose decision in the 
premises shall be final and conclusive." 

This statute of 1847 has never been repealed, and is an independent 
authority for the jurisdiction of the State Superintendent. 

The supreme court, in 3 Denio, 1Y7, declare that "this provision 
(No. 161) was intended as a cheap and expeditious mode of settling 
most if not all of the difficulties and disputes arising in the course of 
the execution of the law organizing and regulating common schools. 
The legislature has virtually declared that where a party will forego 
that convenient method of adjusting such a controversy as the present, 
and resort to the ordinary courts, it shall be at his own expense as 
regards costs." In 11 Wend., 91, the court made substantially the 
same remarks, when refusing to give relief by an action of trespass 
against trustees for their proceedings in selling the plaintiff's property 
under a tax list and warrant which were in more than one respect 
erroneous. A further reason for preferring the remedy by appeal to a 
common law action is, that the superintendent can dispose of all the 
questions connected with the case in a single decision ; where a proceed- 
ing is wrong, he can not only reverse it, but direct the appropriate 
remedy, so as to redress all persons who have been injuriously aff'ected ; 
while an action at law enures only to the benefit of the person who 
brings it, and only gives pecuniary damages, without substituting a cor- 
rect proceeding in the place of an erroneous one. For the extent of the 
Superintendent's powers upon appeal, see Digest, pp. 12, 13 and 14. 

No. 162. Any person conceiving himself aggrieved by any 
act or decision of any trustees of school districts, concerning 
district libraries, or the books therein, or the use of such 
books, or of any librarian, or of any district meeting in rela- 



APPEALS. 319 

tion to their school library, may appeal to the State Superin- 
tendent in the same manner as provided by law. ( Sec. 140, 
aap. 480 0/1847.) 

Under this and the preceding section, appeals may be made by any 
person conceiving himself aggrieved in consequence of: 

1. Any decision made by any school district meeting; this may be 
either by its passing or by its rejecting any resolution offered for its 
consideration. A resolution passed by the meeting presents the point 
upon its own face. Where an inhabitant wishes to raise a question 
upon its refusal to take such action as he desires, his proper course is to 
present a written resolution, embodying the proposition he desires 
adopted, and get a vote upon it ; 

2. Any decision made by the school commissioner alone, or by him 
with the supervisor and town clerk, in forming or altering, or in refusing 
to form or alter any school districts, or in any erroneous apportionment 
of the public money, in refusing to include a district in the apportion- 
ment for teachers' wages or for library when entitled to be included, or 
in apportioning to it upon the basis of a smaller number of pupils than 
it has reported, or in apportioning to it a larger sum than that to which 
it is entitled, to the injury of other districts ; and in fact any official 
decision, act or proceeding, in discharging or refusing to discharge any 
duty imposed by law, or by the regulations of the superintendent, made 
in pursuance of law, or incident to the duties of his office ; 

3. Any decision made by the trustees in paying a teacher or refusing 
to pay, or refusing to admit any scholar gratuitously into any school ; in 
making out any tax list or rate bill, or in any act or proceeding what- 
ever which they undertake to perform officially, or which, being bound 
by law or lawful regulations of the superintendent, or as incident to the 
duties of their office, they refuse or neglect to perform. In order to fix 
them with a responsibility for neglect to discharge a duty, and as pre- 
liminary to an appeal, it would be well for the persons conceiving 
themselves aggrieved to unite in a written request to the trustees to 
perform the act desired, or to give written notice that they have decided 
not to perform it. They may properly designate, in such request, a 
reasonable time for the performance of the duty, and therein state that 
the neglect of the trustees to discharge the duty within the time so 
specified will be regarded as equivalent to a refusal, and as justifying an 
appeal, or, if the case requires it, an application for the removal of the 
trustees from office ; 



320 APPEALS. 

4. Any act or decision by the trustees, or of tlie librarian, or of a dis- 
trict meeting, concerning the library or the books therein, or the use of 
such books ; 

5. Under the general clause " concerning any other matter under 
the present title," which includes the whole of this Code, any decision 
by any school officer, aifecting the interests of a district or its inhabitants 
in regard to the school laws, may form the subject of an appeal. There 
may be cases where the powers of the superintendent are inadequate to 
give redress, as there may be cases in which the discretion of the local 
officer Ought to control, but whether ,a particular case is such an one, 
must be determined as the question arises. 

By whom appeals are to be made. No person can sustain an appeal 
unless he is aggrieved, that is, injured in his rights by the act or decision 
of which he complains. Generally, every inhabitant of a district is 
aggrieved by the wrongful act or omission of a trustee or school com- 
missioner, by which money or property is disposed of, or not secured 
for the benefit of the district. But no one is aggrieved by another 
being included in a tax list or rate bill, although other inhabitants are 
by the omission of one who should be taxed ; and appeals may be 
made by trustees in behalf of their district whenever they are aggrieved. 

Before giving the rules which have been made to regulate the 
practice upon appeals, it is proper to call attention to some general 
princip*les in relation to the mode of drawing them up. In the first 
place, the department wants facts, and not arguments, far less injurious 
imputations upon the motives of parties. The facts should be distinctly 
averred, so that an indictment for perjury would lie if they are wilfully 
misstated. Therefore, they should not be stated by way of recital under 
a " whereas," or in any similar indirect way. Every material fact should 
be stated with all practicable particularity as to time, quantities, numbers, 
&c. Where a statement is ambiguous or doubtful in meaning, that 
construction is adopted which is most unfavorable to the party making it. 
The appellant should make out his own case ; so that if no answer is 
put in, the superintendent will have, in the appeal itself, all the facts to 
inform him what order ought to be made. No decision can be based 
upon any facts except those which are stated in the appeal, and which 
the opposite party has had the opportunity to controvert, although such 
facts may have been brought to the knowledge of the superintendent in 
some other way. The record itself must contain enough to support the 
decision. 



LETTERS OF INQUIRY. 321 

It will conduce much to the speedy disposition of a case that the 
papers be fairly and legibly written, upon foolscap paper when practi- 
cable, in the fashion of legal pleadings ; that is, the leaves written on 
both sides are attached at the top, and not at the side, so that the 
bottom of the first page is the top of the second. They should be 
endorsed with the title of the case, in such a form as to indicate, briefly, 
what is the act or decision complained of, and the district, town and 
county which it affects. The papers on each side should also be 
endorsed with the name of the post office at Avhich the party sending it 
desires to be addressed. 



LETTERS OF INQUIRY AND EX PARTE APPLICATIONS. 

Perhaps the most onerous duty of the Superintendent of Public In- 
struction is one which is not mentioned in the statutes. It is that of 
replying to applications for advice respecting the construction of the 
school laws, and the legality of proceedings of district meetings, of 
trustees, and other school officers. The efl'ort has been made to give in 
this volume a full exposition, under the appropriate section, of the ques- 
tions which have been found, by the experience of the department, to 
embarrass officers in the discharge of their duties. If, however, after 
examination of the instructions herein contained, it is conceived neces- 
sary to apply to the department for further information, it must be 
borne in mind : 

1. That no decision can be made, on any subject affecting in any 
manner the rights or interests of other parties, without both sides having 
been heard or having been invited to present their statements. This 
occurs only when an appeal is regularly brought in the mode prescribed 
by the regulations, or where all parties have signed, and united in trans- ' 
mitting, a statement of facts to which they agree ; 

2. That an ojjinion, given under any other circumstances, must be 
regarded as valid only so far as the statement on which it is founded 
represents fairly and fully all the facts pertinent to the case. It fre- 
quently happens that two parties, applying for advice upon the same 
question, state the facts so differently that they receive very dissimilar 
replies, and are thus confirmed in their difference of opinion, instead of 
being reconciled. No opinion should be asked upon an abstract 
question or a hypothetical case ; but the actual facts out of which the 
question arises should be clearly and briefly stated, with all practicable 
certainty as to dates and number, and in such a manner as to indicate 

rCoDE.l 41 



322 RULES RESPECTING APPEALS. 

the object of the inquiry. The last is advisable, because a proceeding 
may be legally good and sufficient for some purposes, and as against some 
persons, while it is invalid for other purposes and against other parties. 
The facts should be stated in contradistinction to mere evidence, on the 
one hand, and to the writer's inferences as to the effect of those facts, on 
the other. 

To facilitate the business of the department, and the prompt and cor- 
rect transmission of answers to its correspondents, it is desirable that all 
letters should be written on foolscap paper, with a clear margin of one 
inch on the inside edge of the page. They should always specify the 
number of the school district, together with the name of the town or 
towns of which it constitutes a part, and the county in which the latter 
are situated. The writer should, in all cases, no matter how frequently 
he may write, state at what post-office he desires to be addressed. 

Whenever reference may be necessary to any previous letter from the 
department, its number should he given. This enables the department 
to ascertain at once its contents and those of the paper to which it was 
a reply. 

Every application for the exercise of any legal power of the depart- 
ment, as for special permission to be included in the apportionment 
of public money, &c., must be supported by an affidavit stating the facts 
on which it is based. When any person is interested in opposing it, 
the application must be accompanied with proof of service of a copy 
thereof on such party, in the same manner as required upon appeals. 

RULES RESPECTING APPEALS. 

1. An appeal must be in writing, addressed "To the Superintendent 
of Public Instruction," and signed by the appellant. When made by 
the trustees of a district, it must be signed by all the trustees, or a 
reason must be given for the omission of any, verified by the oath of 
the appellant, or of some person acquainted with such reason. 

2. A copy of the appeal, and of all the statements, maps and papers 
intended to be presented in support of it, with the affidavit in verification 
of the same, must be served on the officers whose act or decision is com- 
plained of, or some of them ; or if it be from the decision or proceeding of 
a district meeting, upon the district clerk or one of the trustees, whose 
duty it is to cause information of such appeal to be given to the inhabi- 
tants who voted for the decision or proceeding appealed from. Immedi- 
ately after the service of such copy, the original, together with an affida^^t 



' KIJLES RESPECTING APPEALS. 323 

proving the service of a copy thereof, and stating the time and manner of 
the service and the name and oflScial character of the person upon whom 
such service was made, must be transmitted to the Department of Public 
Instruction, at Albany. If an answer is received to an appeal which 
has not been transmitted to the department, such appeal will be 
dismissed. 

3. Such service must be made and the original sent to the depart- 
ment within thirty days after the making of the decision or the 
performance of the act complained of, or within that time after the 
knowledge of the cause of complaint came to the appellant, or some 
satisfactory excuse must be rendered, in the appeal, for the delay. 

4. The party on whom the appeal was served must, within ten days 
fi'om the time of such service, answer the same, either by concurring in 
a statement of facts with the appellant, or by a separate answer. Such 
statement and answer must be signed by all the trustees or other 
officers whose act, omission or decision is appealed from, or a good 
reason on oath must be given for the omission of the signature of any 
of them. Such answer must be verified by oath, and a copy served on 
the appellants or some one of them. 

5. So far as the parties concur in a statement, no oath will be 
required to it. But all facts, maps or papers, not agreed upon by them 
and evidenced by their signatures on both sides, must be verified by 
oath. 

6. All oaths required by these regulations must be taken before a 
judge of a court of record, a commissioner of deeds, a justice of the 
peace or a school commissioner. 

1. A copy of the answer, and of all the statements, maps and papers 
intended to be presented in support of it, must be served upon the 
appellants, or some one of them, within ten days after service of a copy of 
the appeal, unless further time be given by the State Superintendent, on 
application, in special cases; but no replication or rejoinder shall be 
allowed, except by permission of the State Superintendent, and in refer- 
ence exclusively to matters arising upon the answer, and which may be 
deemed by such State Superintendent pertinent to the issue ; in which 
case such replication and rejoinder shall be duly verified by oath, and 
copies thereof served on the opposite party. 

8. Proof of the service of copies of the appeal, answer and all other 
papers intended to be used on the hearing of such appeal, must, in all 
cases, accompany the same. 



324 ETJLES RESPECTING APPEALS. 

9. When any proceeding of a district meeting is appealed from, and 
when the inhabitants of a district generally are interested in the matter 
of the appeal, and in all cases where an inhabitant might be an appel- 
lant had the decision or proceeding been the opposite of that which 
was made or had, any one or more of such inhabitants may answer the 
appeal, with or without the trustees. 

10. Where the appeal has relation to the alteration or formation of a 
school district, it must be accompanied by a map, exhibiting the site of 
the school-house, the roads, the old and new lines of districts, the 
different lots, the particular location and distance from the school- 
houses of the persons aggrieved, and their relative distance, if there 
are two or more school houses in question. Also, a list of all the 
taxable inhabitants in the district or territory to be affected by the 
question, showing in separate columns the valuation of their property, 
taken from the last assessment roll, and the number of children between 
four and twenty-one belonging to each person, distinguishing the 
districts to which they respectively belong. 

1 1. When the copy of the appeal is served, all proceedings upon or 
in continuation of the act complained of, or consequent in any way 
upon such act, must be suspended until the case is decided. So, where 
any decision concerning the distribution of public money to one or 
more districts is appealed from, the supervisor must retain the money 
which is in dispute until the appeal is decided. And where trustees 
have money in their hands claimed to belong to any person, or any 
other district, after the copy of an appeal is served on them in relation 
to such claim, they must retain such moneys to abide the result, and 
must not expend them so as to defeat the object of the appeal. 

12. Whenever a decision is made by the superintendent and com- 
municated to the school commissioner respecting the formation, division 
or alteration of districts, he must cause the decision to be recorded in 
the office of the town clerk. All other decisions communicated to him, 
or to the trustees of districts, are to be kept among the official papers 
of the clerk of the town or district, and handed over to his successors; 
and the district clerks are required to record all such as come to their 
hands, in the district book kept by them. 



DISTRICT LIBRARIES. 325 



OF SCHOOL DISTRICT LIBRARIES. 

No. 163. The sum of fifty-five thousand dollars, directed to 
be distributed to the several school districts of this state by 
the fourth section of chapter two hundred and thirty-seven 
of the Laws of eighteen hundred and thirty-eight, shall con- 
tinue to be applied to the purchase of books for a district 
library, until otherwise directed. (Part of^ 136, chajj 480 of 
1847, modified in covformity to § 9, chap. 151 of 1851, and % 2, 
chap. A2b of ISbl.) 

The remainder of the above section is printed as No. 103, ante. The 
selection of books for the district hbrary is devolved by law upon the 
trustees ; and when the importance of this most beneficent and enlight- 
ened provision for the intellectual and moral improvement of the inhabi- 
tants of the several districts, of both sexes and all conditions, is duly 
estimated, the trust here confided is one of no ordinary responsibility. 
In reference to such selections, but two prominent sources of embarrass - 
ment have been experienced. The one has arisen from the necessity 
of excluding from the libraries all works having directly or remotely a 
sectarian tendency, and the other from that of recommending the exclu- 
sion of novels, romances and other fictitious creations of the imagination, 
including a large proportion of the lighter literature of the day. The 
propriety of a peremptory and uncompromising exclusion of those catch- 
penny, but revolting publications which cultivate the taste for the mar- 
vellous, the tragic, the horrible and the supernatural — the lives and 
exploits of pirates, banditti and desperadoes of every description — is 
too obvious to every reflecting mind to require the slightest argument. 

If any case of improper selection of books should come before the 
superintendent, by appeal from any inhabitant, such selection would be 
set aside ; and if it appears from the reports, which, according to regu- 
lation, must be made, that such books have been purchased, the school 
commissioner will be bound to withhold the next year's library money 
from such district until they are replaced by works of equal cost and 
better character. 

In regard to works of a sectarian character, which there is consider- 
able disposition to smuggle into district libraries, the following general 
rules, promulgated by Supt. Randall several years ago, may be regarded 
as expressing the settled principles of the department : 



326 DISTRICT LIBRARIES. 

"1. No works written professedly to uphold or attack any sect or 
creed in our country, claiming to be a religious one, shall be tolerated 
in the school libraries. 

"2. Standard works on other topics shall not be excluded because 
they incidentally and indirectly betray the religious opinions of their 
authors. 

" 3. Works avowedly on other topics, which abound in direct and 
unreserved attacks on, or defence of, the character of any religious sect, 
or those which hold up any religious body to contempt or execration, 
by singling out or bringing together only the darker parts of its history 
or character, shall be excluded from the school libraries." 

In the selection of books for a district library, information, and not 
mere amusement, is to be regarded as the primary object. Suitable 
provision should, however, be made for the intellectual wants of the 
young, by furnishing them with books which, without being merely 
juvenile in their character, may be level to their comprehension, and 
sufficiently entertaining to excite and gratify a taste for reading. It is 
useless to buy books which are not read. The indifference which is 
manifested in respect to many of the district libraries shows that in 
point of fact their volumes are little sought for. This could hardly be 
the case, if the annual additions were of a kind to interest the young. 
If we can succeed in making eager readers of the youthful generation, 
they will take care of the libraries in the future. 

No. 164. The trustees of every school district shall be 
trustees of the library of such district ; and the property of 
all books therein, and of the case and other appurtenances 
thereof, shall be deemed to be vested in such trustees, so as 
to enable them to maintain any action in relation to the 
same. It shall be their duty to preserve such books and 
keep them in repair ; and the expenses incurred for that pur- 
pose may be included in any tax list to be made out by them, 
as trustees of a district, and added to any tax voted by a dis- 
trict meeting, and shall be collected and paid over in the 
same manner. The librarian of any district library shall be 
subject to the directions of the trustees thereof, in all matters 
relating to the preservation of the books and appurtenances 
of the library, and may be removed from office by them for 
wilful disobedience of such directions or for any wailful 
neglect of duty. {Sec. 137, chajy. 48 of 1847.) 



DISTRICT LIBRARIES. 327 

It is tlie duty of tlie trustees to provide a plain and sufficient case for 
tlie library, with a good lock, if the district shall have neglected to do 
so. They are also to cause the books and case to be repaired as soon 
as may be, when injured ; and to provide sufficient wrapping paper to 
cover their books, and the necessary writing paper to enable the libra- 
rian to keep minutes of the delivery and return of books. These are 
proper expenses for the preservation and repair of the books, and are to 
be defrayed by a tax on the district, which is to be added by the trus- 
tees to any tax voted by a district meeting. It is not necessary that 
the tax to defray J;hese expenses should be voted by the inhabitants of 
the district ; it is to be assessed and collected in the same manner as a 
tax for building or repairing a school-house, or to furnish it with neces- 
sary fuel and appendages. 

The trustees of each school district are required, at the time of making 
their annual reports, to deliver to the school commissioner a catalogue 
containing the titles of all the books in the district library not previously 
reported, with the number of volumes of each set or series, and the con- 
dition of such books, whether sound, or injured or defaced. This cata- 
logue must be signed by them and by the librarian. 

No. 165. Trustees of school districts shall be liable to their 
successors for any neglect or omission in relation to the care 
and superintendence of district Hbraries, by which any books 
therein are lost or injured, to the full amount of such loss or 
injury, in an action on the case, to be brought by such suc- 
cessors in their name of office. ( Sec. 138, chajy. 480 of 1847. ) 

There is great reason to fear that the duties of trustees, in respect to 
the preservation of the libraries in good condition, are often criminally 
neglected. They ought to investigate its condition as soon as they 
come into office, ascertain who has the custody or is responsible for 
every book upon its catalogue, and see that it is returned in due time 
to the librarian, or that the proper fine for its detention is imposed and 
collected. If their predecessors cannot produce or account for the 
books, they should be prosecuted for the value of such as may be 
missing. 

No. 166. A set of general regulations, respecting the pre- 
servation of school district libraries, the delivery of them by 
librarians and trustees to their successors in office, the use of 
them by the inhabitants of the district, the number of volumes 



328 DISTRICT LIBRARIES. 

to be taken by any one person at any one time or during any 
tenn, the periods of their return, the fines and penalties that 
may be imposed by the trustees of such libraries for not 
returning, for losing or destroying any of the books therein, 
or for soiling, defacing or injuring them, and the conditions 
upon which any school district may apply the library money 
to the payment of teachers' wages, may be framed by the 
State Superintendent, and printed copies thereof shall be fur- 
nished to each school district of the state ; which regulations 
shall be obligatory upon all persons and officers having charge 
of such libraries, or using or possessing any of the books 
thereof. Such fines may be recovered in an action of debt, in 
the name of the trustees of any such library, of the person on 
whom they are imposed, except such person be a minor ; in 
which case they may be recovered of the parent or guardian 
of such minor, unless notice in writing shall have been given 
by such parent or guardian to the trustees of such library, 
that they will not be responsible for any books delivered such 
minor. And persons with whom such minors reside shall be 
liable, in the same manner and to the same extent, in cases 
where the parent of such minor does not reside in the district. 
( Sec. 139, chap. 480 of 1847.) 



KEGULATIONS OF THE SUPERINTENDENT MADE IN PURSUANCE OF THE 
ABOVE PROVISION. 

1. The librariaD is required, whenever any library is purchased and 
taken charge of by him, to make out a full and complete catalogue of 
all the books contained therein. At the foot of each catalogue he is to 
sign a receipt in the following form : 

I, A. B., do hereby acknowledge that the books specified in the pre- 
ceding catalogue have been delivered to me by the trustees of School 
District No. , in the town of , to be safely kept by me as 

librarian of the said district for the use of the inhabitants thereof, 
according to the regulations prescribed by the Superintendent of Public 
Instruction, and to be accounted for by me, according to the said regu- 
lations, to the trustees of the said district, and to be delivered to my 
successor in office. Dated, &c. 

A correct copy of the catalogue and receipt is then to be made, to 
which the trustees are to add a certificate in the following form : 



DISTRICT LIBRARIES. 329 

We, the subscribers, trustees of School District No. , in the town 
of , do certify that the preceding is a full and complete cata- 

logue of books in the library of the said district, now in possession of 
A. B., the librarian thereof, and of his receipt thereon. Given under 
our hands, this day of ,18 

The catalogue having the librarian's receipt is to be delivered to 
the trustees, and a copy having the certificate of the trustees is to be 
delivered to the librarian for his indemnity. 

2. Whenever books are added to the library, a catalogue, with a 
similar receipt by the librarian, is to be delivered to the trustees, and a 
copy, with a certificate of the trustees that it is a copy of the catalogue 
delivered them by the librarian, is to be furnished to him. Every cata- 
logue received by trustees is to be kept by them carefully among the 
papers of the district, and to be delivered to their successors in oflBce. 

3. Whenever a new librarian shall be chosen, all the books are to be 
called in. For this purpose the librarian is to refuse to deliver out any 
books for fourteen days preceding the time so prescribed for collecting 
them together. At these periods, they must make a careful examination 
of the books, compare them with the catalogue, and make written state- 
ments, in a column opposite the name of each book, of its actual condi- 
tion, whether lost or present, and whether in good order or injured, and 
if injured, specifying in general terms the extent of such injury. This 
catalogue, with the remarks, is to be delivered to the successors of the 
trustees, to be kept by them ; a copy of it is to be made out and deliv- 
ered to the new librarian, with the library, by whom a receipt, in the 
form above prescribed, is to be given, and to be delivered to the trustees. 
Another copy, certified by them as before mentioned, is to be delivered 
to the librarian. 

4. Trustees, on coming into ofiice, are to attend at the library for the 
purpose of comparing the catalogue with the books. They are at all 
times, when they think proper, and especially on their coming into 
ofiice, to examine the books carefully, and note such as are missing or 
injured. For every book that is missing, the librarian is accountable to 
the trustees for the full value thereof, and for the whole series of which 
it formed a part ; such value to be determined by the trustees. He is 
accountable, also, for any injury which a book may appear to have sus- 
tained by being soiled, defaced, torn or otherwise. And he can be 
relieved from such accountability only by the trustees, on its being 
satisfactorily shown to them that some inhabitant of the district has 

rCoDE.l 42 



330 



DISTRICT LIBRARIES. 



been charged or is chargeable for the book so missing, or for the amount 
of the injury so done to any work. It is the duty of the trustees to take 
prompt and efficient measures for the collection of the amount for which 
any librarian is accountable. 

5. The librarian must cause to be pasted in each book belonging to the 
library a printed or written label, or must write in the first blank leaf 
of each book, specifying that the book belongs to the library of School 
District No. , in the town of , naming the toAvn and giving 

the number of the district ; and he is on no account to deliver out any 
book which has not such printed or written declaration in it. He is 
also to cause all the books to be covered with strong wrapping paper, 
on the back of which is to be written the title of the book, and its 
number in large figures. As new books are added, the numbers are to 
be continued, and they are in no case to be altered ; so that if a book 
be lost, its number and title must still be continued on the catalogue, 
with a note that it is missing. 

The librarian must keep a blank book, that may be made by stitching 
together half a dozen or more sheets of writing paper. Let those be 
ruled across the width of the paper, so as to leave five columns of the 
proper size for the following entries, to be written lengthwise of the 
paper : In the first column, the date of the delivery of any book to any 
inhabitant; in the second, the title of the book delivered, and its num- 
ber ; in the third, the name of the person to whom delivered ; in the 
fourth, the date of its return ; and in the fifth, remarks respecting its 
condition, in the following form : 



Time of Delivery. 


Title & No. Book. To whom. 


When Returned. 


Condition. 


1839, June 10. 


History of Va. 4S. T. Jones. 


20th June. 


Good. 



As it will be impossible for the librarian to keep any trace of the 
books without such minutes, his own interest to screen himself from 
responsibility, as well as his duty to the public, will, it is to be hoped, 
induce him to be exact in making his entries at the time any book is 
delivered, and, when it is returned, to be equally exact in noticing its 
condition, and making the proper minute. 

A fair copy of the catalogue should be kept by the librarian, to be 
exhibited to those who desire to select a book ; and if there be room, it 
should be fastened on the door of the case. 



DISTRICT LIBRARIES. 331 



REGULATIONS CONCERNING THE USE OF THE BOOKS IN DISTRICT LIBRA- 
RIES, PRESCRIBED BY THE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 

I. The librarian has charge of the books, and is responsible for their 
preservation and delivery to his successor. 

II. A copy of the catalogue required to be made out by art. 1 and 2 
of the preceding regulations is to be kept, by the librarian, open to the 
inspection of the inhabitants of the district at all reasonable times. It 
will be found convenient to affix a copy of it on the door of the book- 
case containing the library. 

III. Books are to be delivered as follows : 

1. Only to inhabitants of the district ; 

2. Only one can be delivered to an inhabitant at a time ; and any 
one having a book out of the library must return it before he can 
receive another ; 

3. No -person upon whom a fine has been imposed by the trustees, 
under these regulations, can receive a book while such fine remains 
unpaid ; 

4. A person under age cannot be permitted to take out a book, 
unless he resides with some responsible inhabitant of the district ; nor 
can he then receive a book, if notice has been given by his parent or 
guardian, or the person with whom he resides, that they will not be 
responsible for books delivered such minor ; 

5. Each individual residing in the district, of suflScient age to read 
the books belonging to the library, is to be regarded as an inhabitant, 
and is entitled to all the benefits and privileges conferred by the regula- 
tions relative to district libraries. Minors will draw in their own names, 
but on the responsibility of their parents or guardians ; 

6. Where there is a sufficient number of volumes in the library to 
accommodate all residents of the district who wish to borrow, the libra- 
rian should permit each member of a family to take books, as often as 
desired, so long as the regulations are punctually and fully observed. 
But where there are not books enough to supply all the borrowers, 
tffe librarian should endeavor to accommodate as many as possible, 
by furnishing each family in proportion to the number of its readers or 
borrowers. 

IV. Every book must be returned to the library within twenty days 
after it shall have been taken out ; but the same inhabitant may again 
take it, unless application has been made for it while it was so out of 
the library by any person entitled, who has not previously borrowed 



332 DISTRICT LIBRARIES. 

the same book, in whicli case such applicant shall have a preference in 
the use of it. And where there have been several such applicants, the 
preference shall be according to the priority in time of their appli- 
cations, to be determined by the librarian. Upon application to the 
superintendent, the time for keeping books out of the library will be 
extended to a period not exceeding twenty-eight days, where sufficient 
reasons for such extension are shown. 

V. If a book be not returned at the proper time, the librarian is to 
report the fact to the trustees ; and he must also exhibit to them every 
book which has been returned injured, by soiling, defacing, tearing or 
in any other way, before such book shall again be loaned out, together 
with the name of the inhabitant in whose possession it was when so 
injured. 

VI. The trustees of school districts being, by virtue of their office, 
trustees of the library, are hereby authorized to impose the following 
fines : 

1. For each day's detention of a book, beyond the time allowed by 
these regulations, six cents ; but not to be imposed for more than ten 
days' detention ; 

2. For the destruction or loss of a book, a fine equal to the full value 
of the book, or of the set, if it be one of a series, with the addition to 
such value of ten cents for each volume. And on the payment of such 
fine, the party fined shall be entitled to the residue of the series. If he 
has also been fined for detaining such book, then the said ten cents 
shall not be added to the value ; 

3. For any injury which a book may sustain after it shall be taken 
out by a borrower, and before its return, a fine may be imposed of six 
cents for every spot of grease or oil upon the cover, or upon any leaf of 
the volume ; for writing in or defacing any book, not less than ten cents, 
nor more than the value of the book; for cutting or tearing the cover 
or the binding, or any leaf, not less than ten cents, nor more than the 
value of the book ; 

4. If a leaf be torn out, or so defaced or miitilated that it cannot 
be read, or if anything be Tl^ritten in the volume, or any other injury 
done to it which renders it unfit for general circulation, the trustees will 
consider it a destruction of the book, and shall impose a fine accord- 
ingly, as above provided, in case of loss of a book ; 

5. When a book shall have been detained seven days beyond the 
twenty days allowed by these regulations, the librarian shall give notice 
to the borrower to return the same within three days. If not returned 



DISTRICT LIBRARIES. 333 

at that time, the trustees may consider the book lost or destroyed, and 
may impose a fine for its destruction, in addition to the fines for its 
detention. 

VII. But the imposition of a fine, for the loss or destruction of a 
book, shall not prevent the trustees from recovering such book in an 
action of replevin, unless such fine shall have been paid. 

VIII. When, in the opinion of the librarian, any fine has been incur- 
red by any person under these regulations, he may refuse to deliver any 
book, to the party liable to such fine, until the decision of the trustees 
upon such liability be had. 

IX. Previous to the imposition of any fine, two days' written or 
verbal notice is to be given by any trustee or the librarian, or any other 
person authorized by either of them, to the person charged, to show 
cause why he should not be fined for the alleged ofi"ence or neglect ; 
and if, within that time, good cause be not shown, the trustees shall 
impose the fine herein prescribed. No other excuse for an extraordinary 
injury to a book, that is, for such an injury as would not be occasioned 
by its ordinary use, should be received, than the fact that the book Avas 
as much injured when it was taken out, by the person charged, as it 
was when he returned it. As such loss must fall on some one, it is 
more just that it should be borne by the party whose duty it was to 
take care of the volume than by the district. Negligence can only be 
prevented, and disputes can only be avoided, by the adoption of this 
rule. Subject to these general principles, the imposition of all or any 
of these fines is discretionary with the trustees, and they should ordi- 
narily be imposed only for toilful or culpably negligent injuries to books, 
or where the district actually sustains a loss or serious injury. Reason- 
able excuses for the detention of the books beyond twenty days should 
in all cases be received. 

X. It is the special duty of the librarian to give notice to the 
borrower of a book, that shall be returned injured, to show cause why 
he should not be fined. Such notice may be given to the agent of the 
borrower who returns the book, and it should always be given at the 
time the book is returned. 

XI. The librarian is to inform the trustees of every notice given by 
him to show cause against the imposition of a fine ; and they shall 
assemble at the time and place appointed by him, or by any notice given 
by them, or any one of them, and shall hear the charge and defence. 
They are to keep a book of minutes, in which every fine imposed by 
theno, and the cause, shall be entered and signed by them, or the major 



SU DISTRICT LIBRAEIES. 

part of them, SucL. original minutes, or a copy certified by them, or 
the major part of them, or by the clerk of the district, shall be conclu- 
sive evidence of the fact that a fine vras imposed, as stated in such 
minutes, according to these regulations. 

XII. It shall be the duty of trustees to prosecute promptly for the 
collection of all fines imposed by them. Fines collected for the deten- 
tion of books, or for injuries to them, are to be applied to defray the 
expense of repairing the books in the library. Fines collected for the 
loss or destruction of any book, or of a set or series of books, shall be 
applied to the purchase of the same or other suitable books. 

XIII. These regulations being declared by law " obligatory upon all 
persons and ofiicers having charge of such libraries, or using or pos- 
sessing any of the books thereof," it is expedient that they should be 
made known to every borrower of a book. And for that purpose, a 
printed copy is to be afiixed conspicuously on the case containing any 
library, or on one of such cases if there be several, and the librarian is 
to call the attention to them of every person, on the first occasion of his 
taking out a book. 

The offices of trustee and librarian are incompatible, and cannot be 
held by the same person. 

No. 167. The legal voters in any two or more adjoining 
districts may, in such cases as may be approved by the town 
superintendent, unite their library moneys and funds, as they 
shall be received or collected, and purchase a joint library for 
the use of the inhabitants of such districts, which shall be 
selected by the trustees thereof, or by such persons as they 
shall designate, and shall be under the charge of a librarian, 
to be appointed by them ; and the foregoing provisions of this 
act shall be applicable to the said joint libraries, except that 
the property in them shall be deemed to be vested in all the 
trustees, for the time being, of the districts so united. And 
in case any such district shall desire to divide such library, 
such division shall be made by the trustees of the two districts 
whose libraries are so united, and in case they cannot agree, 
then such division shall be made by the town superintendent. 
{Sec. 141, chap. 480 o/l847.) 

No provision is made in the act of 1856 for devolving the powers of 
the former town superintendent, under the above section, upon the 
supervisors or school commissioners. The section must, therefore, for 
the present, remain inoperative. 



DISTRICT LIBRAEIES. 335, 

No. 168. Where, by reason of the non-compliance with the 
conditions prescribed by law, the library money shall be with- 
held from any school district, the same may be distributed 
among other districts complying with such conditions, or may 
be retained and paid subsequently to the district from which 
the same was withheld, as shall be directed by the State 
Superintendent, according to the circumstances of the case. 
{Sec. 142, chap. 480 o/1847.) 

The determination of the State Superintendent may be made upon 
an appeal from the decision of the school commissioner, excluding the 
district from an apportionment. Upon a notice from the commissioner, 
that it is his intention to exclude the district, the trustees may, with his 
concurrence, present a statement of the facts to the superintendent, for 
his direction. Such statement must be verified and served upon the 
commissioner, that he may add such remarks as the case calls for before 
forwarding it to the department. That course may he pursued in 
regard to any case of accidental delinquency, under the next section. 
In reference to the form and contents of such statement, see pp. 133, 
134, ante. 

No. 169. Whenever an apportionment of the public money 
shall not be made to any school district, in consequence of 
any accidental omission to make any report required by law, 
or to comply with any other provision of law, or any regula- 
tion, the State Superintendent may direct an apportionment to 
be made to such district, according to the equitable circum- 
stances of the case, to be paid out of the public money on 
hand ; or, if the same shall have been distributed, out of the 
public money to be received in a succeeding year. ( Sec. 39, 
cAop. 480 0/1847.) 

No. 170. The State Superintendent, whenever requested by 
the trustees of a school district, under the directions of the legal 
voters of such district, may select a library for their use, and 
cause the same to be delivered to the clerk of the county in 
which such district is situated, at its expense. ( Sec. 143, chap. 
480 0/1847.) 

No. 171. Whenever the Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion shall receive from any author or publisher two copies of 
any book published by him or them, a copyright of which 
shall have been duly entered under the laws of the United 



336 DISTRICT LIBRARIES. 

States, with an offer on the part of such publisher to furnish 
such book to the district school libraries of the state, and the 
Packer Collegiate Institute of the city of Brooklyn, at a price 
not exceeding two-thirds of the retail price of said book, 
which price shall be specified in said offer, it shall be the 
duty of said superintendent to place one of said copies in the 
state library at Albany, retaining the other for his own use, 
and to make a complete list with the prices annexed, of such 
of said books as in his opinion are proper and suitable to be 
placed in the district school libraries of the state ; and, there- 
upon, on or before the first Tuesday of December in each 
year, the said superintendent shall cause printed circulars, 
addressed to the trustees of common schools, and the trustees 
of the Packer Collegiate Institute of the city of Brooklyn, to 
be forwarded by mail or otherwise to the several town super- 
intendents, containing the titles and prices of said books so 
selected and specified, with such remarks as the said superin- 
tendent may deem useful, together with a statement of the 
estimated amount of library money to be apportioned to the 
town and the said Packer Collegiate Institute for the current 
year, and a brief notice that the books so specified, or so 
many of them as the trustees may select, not exceeding in 
amount the library money to which such district or said 
Packer Collegiate Institute may be entitled, can be obtained 
in the manner provided by this act. ( Sec. 1, chap. 186 of 
1856.) 

No. 172. The trustees, or a majority thereof, of any school 
district entitled to participate in the library moneys, together 
with the trustees of the said Packer Collegiate Institute, may 
select from such list, or the list of any previous year, so many 
of said books as they may wish to purchase, under the limita- 
tion aforesaid, and shall make and deliver to the town super- 
intendent of schools, as soon after the receipt of such circular 
as practicable, a list of the books so selected, with the prices 
annexed, to the town superintendent, specifying the number 
of the district or the institution for which the same are 
ordered ; and the town superintendent shall thereupon make 
out for the town a complete list of the books so selected by 
each of the several districts, and the said Packer Collegiate 
Institute, specifying the number, titles and prices of the books 
selected by each, under the limitation aforesaid, and shall, 
before the time in the next section mentioned, transmit such 
list to the county clerk of his county, who shall file the same 



DISTRICT LIBRARIES. 331 

in his office ; the deliveiy of such list by the trustees to the 
town superintendent shall be taken and reported by him as a 
lawful expenditure of the library money. ( Sec. 2, chap. 186 
0/1856.) 

No. 173. The several county clerks shall thereupon, and 
on or before the last Tuesday in each year, make out a com- 
plete list for the county of all the books so ordered, specifying 
the number, title and prices of the books ordered by each town 
and the said institute, and forthwith transmit a copy thereof 
to the State Superintendent. {Sec. 3, chap. 186 of 1856.) 

No. 174. The State Superintendent shall, thereupon, and 
on or before the first Tuesday of February in each year, pro- 
cure the books so ordered, and cause the same, as ordered, to 
be transmitted to the county clerks of the several counties, 
who shall deliver the same on demand, taking a receipt there- 
for, to the several town superintendents and the trustees of 
the said institute, according to the number ordered by the 
respective towns and the trustees of said institute, to be 
distributed by the town superintendent a^inong the several 
school districts entitled to the same, and the trustees 'of 
said institute ; the receipts so takei;i by the county clerks 
from the town superintendents shall be sent hj mail to 
the State Superintendent, as vou^chers for the proper dis- 
tribution of the same. The expenses ,of transportation, 
and other necessary disbursements ujnder this act, shall be 
certified by the State Superintendent, and paid by the comp- 
troller out of the money annually appropriated for the trans- 
portation of books from the public offices. ( Sec. 4, chap. 186 
0/1856.) 

No. 175. The State Superintendent shall re'tain in his hands 
so much of the library money apportioned to each town and 
ward as may be necessary to pay for the books ordered by 
such town or ward, or the said Packer Collegiate Institute, 
and shall pay the same to the author or publisher of said 
books, on the contract for the purchase thereof, taking 
receipts therefor and filing the same in his office. (Sec. 5, 
chap. 186 of 1856.) 

No. 176. Town superintendents [school commissioners, 
supervisors], trustees, collectors and clerks of school districts, 
refusing or wilfully neglecting to make any report, or to per- 

[CODE.] 43 



338 SUITS AGAINST DISTRICT OFFICERS. 

form any other duty required by law, or by regulations or 
decisions made under the authority of any statute, shall seve- 
rally forleit to their town or to their district, as the case may 
be, for the use of the common schools therein, the sum of ten 
dollars for each such neglect or refusal, which penalty shall 
be sued for and collected by the supervisor of the town, and 
paid over to the proper officers to be distributed for the bene- 
fit of the common schools in the town or district to which 
such penalty belongs; and when the share of school or library 
money apportioned to any town or district, or school, or any 
portions thereof, or any money to which a town or district 
would have been entitled, shall be lost in consequence of any 
wilful neglect of official duty by any town superintendent, 
[school commissioner, supervisor], or trustees or clerks of 
school districts, the officers guilty of such neglect shall forfeit 
to the town or district the full amount, with interest, of the 
moneys so lost ; and they shall be jointly and severally liable 
for the payment of such forfeiture. {Sec. 145, chap. 480 of 
1847.) 

As all the duties formerly discharged by the town superintendents 
are now divided between the school commissioners and the supervisors, 
the latter are subject to the same penalties, for any official delinquency 
affecting the interest of a town or district, as the town superintendent 
would have been. 



SUITS AGAINST DISTRICT OFFICERS. 

No. 177. In any suit which shall hereafter be commenced 
against town superintendents or officers of school districts, for 
any act performed by virtue of or under color of their offices, 
or for any refusal or omission to perform any duty enjoined by 
law, and which might have been the subject of an appeal to 
the superintendent, no costs shall be allowed to the plaintiff 
in cases where the court shall certify that it appeared on the 
trial of the cause that the defendants acted in good faith. 
But this provision shall not extend to suits for penalties, nor 
to suits or proceedings to enforce the decisions of the superin- 
tendent. {Sec. 146, chap. 480 0/1847.) 

The object of the legislature in this provision was, as before remarked, 
to punish those persons who will harass school officers by prosecution 
in the courts, where they might have found a remedy in appealing to 



SUITS AGiVINST DISTRICT OFFICERS. 339 

tlie State Superintendent, by compelling tliem to bear tbcir own costs 
whenever it shall appear to the court that the defendants, though acting 
illegally, acted in good faith. [See 3 Denio, 177, before quoted.) The 
exemption from costs, given by the above section to town superinten- 
dents, will doubtless extend to supervisors or school commissioners, if 
prosecuted for their official action in respect to any duty formerly 
imposed upon the town superintendent. 

By § 108, title 4, chap. 8, part 3, Revised Statutes, it is provided that 
in suits against trustees of school districts, and certain other officers, 
" the debt, damages or costs recovered against them shall be collected 
in the same manner as against individuals, and the amount so collected 
shall be allowed to them in their official accounts." 

This provision does not relate to actions for personal delinquencies, 
but was intended to provide only for those cases in which the officer 
was subjected to damages and costs, without his fault, in consequence 
of the legitimate performance of a public duty. The legal presumption, 
when a judgment is recovered against an officer, is, that it was incurred 
by his doing something which he ought not to have done, Cand when it 
includes costs, that he has failed to make it appear that, though mis- 
taken, he acted in good faith. '; For this reason his account is subjected 
to the scrutiny provided by the following section, before he can be 
reimbursed or permitted to retain the amount from money in his hands. 

If a trustee's term of office expires while an action is pending against 
him and the other trustees in their official character, his successor may 
procure himself to be substituted, or in a court of record — but not in a 
justices' court — the opposite party may procure him to be substituted 
as defendant. (2 JDenio, 125.) 

No. 178. Whenever a suit shall have been commenced, or 
shall hereafter be commenced, against the trustees of a school 
district, in consequence of acts by them performed in pur- 
suance of and by the direction of such district, for any act per- 
formed by virtue of or under color of their office, and such suit 
shall have been finally determined : or, 

Whenever, after the final determination of any suit com- 
menced by or against any trustees or other officers of a school 
district, a majority of the taxable inhabitants of any school 
district shall so determine : 

It shall be the duty of the trustees to ascertain, in the man- 
ner hereinafter described, the actual amount of all the costs, 
charges and expenses paid by such officer, and to cause 



340 SUITS AGAINST DISTRICT OFFICERS. 

the same to be assessed upon and collected of the taxable 
inhabitants of said district, in the same manner as other 
taxes of said district are by law assessed and collected, 
and, when so collected, to pay the same over to the officer by 
virtue of this act entitled to receive the same ; but this pro- 
vision shall not extend to suits for penalties, nor suits or pro- 
ceedings to enforce the decisions of the superintendent. ( Sec. 
1, chaj). 172 o/'1847, as amended by chap. 388 o/'1849.) 

This section is singularly blind ; and such judicial commentary as has 
been spent upon it has not, on the whole, rendered it more lucid. All 
the judges who have expressed opinions concur in regarding it as having 
"great and embarrassing ambiguities." [See 6 JIow. Pr. H., 334; 
8 id., 125, 358; 10 id., 145, 468.) By some, it is regarded as autho- 
rizing the inhabitants at a district meeting to vote a tax for the payment 
of legal expenses incurred by the trustees in the defence of an action 
brought against them in their official character, and permitting the 
trustees to levy such a tax without an application to the board of super- 
visors, under the succeeding sections : But as requiring the authority of 
the board of supervisors to levy such taxes, if it did not appear on the 
face of the judgment that the trustees were sxied as trustees, and not as 
persons who had lost the protection of their official character, and were 
mere trespassers ; and as also requiring such authority of the board of 
supervisors in all cases where the action had been brought hy the 
trustees, or either by or against any officer other than the trustees. By 
others, the vote of the supervisors is regarded as in all cases indispen- 
sable ; but it is not clear in what cases the vote of a district meeting is 
requisite to give the board of supervisors jurisdiction, and in what cases 
that board may direct the levying a tax without the question being first 
submitted to a district meeting. 

Amid these doubts, the only entirely safe course is to take all the 
steps pointed out by the statute in every case ; that is to say, to make 
out the verified account mentioned in the succeeding section, and serve 
it with the notice therein prescribed upon the trustees ; present it, also, 
to a district meeting, and procure a vote directing the trustees to ascer- 
tain the actual amount of such costs, &c., and to cause the same to 
be assessed and collected. If the inhabitants are satisfied with the 
items, as presented, the resolution should declare that fact. If they are 
not, and the account is claimed by the trustees in their own behalf, the 
meeting may appoint some person to contest it before the board of 
supervisors. The account, with the resolution adopted by the district 



SUITS AGAINST DISTRICT OFFICERS. 341 

meeting in respect to it, together with evidence of the service upon the 
trustees of a copy thereof and of the notice prescribed, should then be 
presented to the board of supervisors. If that board then directs the 
account to be paid, there is small room for doubt that a tax founded 
upon all these proceedings would be legal. If any of them are omitted, 
the result will depend upon the particular judge before whom the ques- 
tion is brought, and his peculiar method of endeavoring to make that 
intelligible which the legislature has left unintelligible. 

No. 179. Whenever any person mentioned in the first 
section of this act shall have paid any costs, charges or 
expenses, as mentioned in said first section, he shall make 
out an account of such charges, costs and expenses, so paid 
by him, giving the items thereof, and verify the same by his 
oath or affirmation ; he shall serve a copy of said account so 
sworn to upon the trustees of the district against which such 
claim shall be made, together with a notice in writing that 
on a certain day therein specified he will present such account 
to the board of supervisors of the county in which such school 
district shall be situated, for settlement at some legal meeting 
of such board ; and it shall be the duty of the officer upon 
whom such copy, account and notice shall be served to 
attend, at the time and place in such notice specified, to protect 
the rights and interests of such district upon such settlement. 
{Sec.2,cka2J. 172^/1847.) 

Proof of service of a copy of the account and of the notice upon the 
trustees is essential to give jurisdiction to the board of supervisors. It 
is very plain that when the trustees are themselves the claimants they 
ought to show that they have given notice of their claim, with its items 
verified by oath, and notice of the time it is to be presented to the 
supervisors, to a district meeting, so that it shall have had the opportu- 
nity either to admit its justice or to make provision for contesting its 
allowance. This is not in the terms of the statute, but is in the equity 
of the case, and the board of supervisors might insist upon it as a pre- 
liminary to paying the account. 

No. 180. Upon the appearance of the parties, or upon due 
proof of service of the notice and copy of account mentioned 
in the second section of this act, if the said board shall be of 
opinion that such account or any portion thereof ought justly 
to be paid to the claimant, such board may, by an order to be 



342 SUITS AGAINST DISTRICT OFFICERS. 

made by a majority of all the members elected to the same, 
and to be entered in its minutes, require such account, or such 
part thereof as such board shall be of opinion ought justly to 
be paid to the claimant by such district, to be so paid ; but 
no portion of such account shall be so ordered to be paid 
which shall appear to the said board to have arisen from the 
wilful neglect or misconduct of the claimant. The account, 
with the oath of the party claiming the same, shall be prima 
facie evidence of the correctness thereof. The board may 
adjourn the hearing, from time to time, as justice shall seem 
to require. ( Sec. 3, chaj). 172 of 1847. ) 

The board of supervisors act judicially in allowing or disallowing an 
account, and their decision will not be reviewed in any tribunal. ( 8 How. 
Pr, JR., 358.) Their order should recite all the facts necessary to show 
their jurisdiction, such as the presentation of an account in items, its 
verification by the oath of the claimant, the service upon the trustees 
or their appearance to contest it, and should declare that no portion of 
the account, as allowed and ordered to be paid, appeared to have arisen 
from the wilful neglect or misconduct of the claimant. It should con- 
clude, after these recitals : " It is therefore ordered by this board, a 
majority of all the members elected to the same having voted for this 
order, that the sum of dollars cents be paid by School District 

No. of the town of , in satisfaction of such account ; that a 

copy of this order be forthwith served by the clerk upon the trustees 
of said district, to the end that within thirty days after such service the 
said trustees may, as required by law, cause the same to be entered at 
length in the book of records of said district, and issue to the collector 
of said district a warrant for the collection of the amount herein above 
directed to be paid." 

No. 181. It shall be the duty of the trustees oi any school 
district, within thirty days after service of a copy of such 
order upon them, to cause the same to be entered at length in 
the book of records of said district, and to issue to the collec- 
tor of said district a warrant for the collection of the amount 
so directed to be paid, in the same manner and with the like 
force and effect as upon a tax voted by said district. ( Sec. 4, 
cAap. 172 0/1847.) 

The concluding words, " as upon a tax voted," &c., have been cited 
as implying that the tax was not, in point of fact, voted by the disti'ict. 



SCHOOLS FOR COLORED CHILDREN. 343 

The heading of the tax list made out by the trustees should state the 
purpose for which the money is raised, and the date of the order of the 
board of supervisors authorizing it. The remedy of the claimant, in 
case the trustees refuse or neglect to issue their warrant, is by applica- 
tion to the supreme court for a mandamus, [See Digest, ante, p. 43.) 
Tlieir wilful refusal would be sufficient ground for an application for 
their removal from office, under No. 8. 

MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS. 

'No. 182. A school for colored children may be established 
in any city or town of this state, with approbation of the 
commissioners or town superintendent of such city or town, 
which shall be under the charge of the trustees of the district 
in which such school shall be kept ; and in places where no 
school districts exist, or where from any cause it may be 
expedient, such school may be placed in charge of trustees to 
be appointed by the commissioners or town superintendent 
of common schools of the town or city, and, if there be none, 
to be appointed by the State Superintendent. Returns shall 
be made by the trustees of such school to the [school com- 
missioners] at the same time and in the same manner as now 
provided by law in relation to districts ; and they shall par- 
ticularly specify the number of colored children over [fourl 
and under [twenty-one] years of age, attending such school 
from different districts, naming such districts respectively, and 
the number from each. The [school commissioners] shall 
apportion and pay over to the trustees of such school a por- 
tion of the money received by them annually, in the same 
manner as now provided by law in respect to school districts, 
allowing to such schools the proper proportion for each child 
over [four] and under [twenty-one] years who shall have 
been instructed in such school at least/o^^r months by a teacher 
duly licensed, and shall deduct such proportion from the 
amount, that would have been apportioned to the district to 
which such children belong ; and in his report to the State 
Superintendent, the town superintendent shall specially 
designate the schools for colored children in his town or city. 
(♦Sec. 147, c/iap. 480 o/" 1847, modified in conformity to § 13, chai). 
151 o/'l851, and No. 67, ante.) 

There is some obscurity in the provisions of this section. A school 
in which children are separated from others, on the ground of their 



344 SCHOOLS FOR COLORED CHILDREN. 

complexion, is an anomaly which it is very difficult to reconcile with 
our political or educational system. The policy of the section appeara 
to be to constitute so many of the colored children, of a town which 
establishes a colored school under trustees distinct from those of a territo- 
rial district, as attend a separate school therein for four months, a quasi 
district for the purpose of the apportionment of public money. Those 
who attend the schools in any territorial district, or who attend no 
school at all, are left to be enumerated in the district whose boundaries 
contain their residence. Separated as a class, they are deprived of the 
advantages which white and Indian children derive from having their 
rate bills reduced by the enumeration of those who do not attend the 
school. This palpable injustice is a strong argument against the estab- 
lishment of such schools. Where they are established, the most libe- 
ral interpretation of the law should be employed in their favor. 

Where a separate school for colored children is established in a dia- 
trict, the trustees must provide suitable rooms at the expense of the 
district, and must treat it in all respects as a part of the district school ; 
maintaining a qualified teacher, applying the public money to his com- 
pensation, and paying any remainder of his wages, beyond the public 
money applied thereto, by rate bill upon the attendants in all the depart- 
ments of the district school, without discrimination. They have no 
right to give to colored children teachers or facilities for education in any 
respect inferior to those of the whites. The law contemplates no such 
distinction between them, and it is impossible to render its provisions 
harmonious with any attempt to institute one. Where, in such a branch 
district school, colored children attend who reside in other districts, the 
law assigns the public money apportioned on their account to the dis- 
trict in which they attend. 

In the other case, of a colored school established under the charge 
of trustees, distinct from the trustees of a district, that is, of a town 
colored school, the only way to avoid the injustice above referred to is 
to regard " the proper proportion" for each child instructed four months, 
as to be found by dividing the money apportioned to the district of his 
residence equally between the children who have attended at least four 
months. A proportion must be between things of the same nature ; if 
one term of it is based upon attendance, the other must be also. 

No. 183. No person shall wilfully disturb, interrupt or dis- 
quiet any assemblage of persons met at any school district, 
with the assent of the trustees of the school district, for the 



MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS. 345 

purpose of receiving instruction in any of the branches of 
education usually taught in the common schools of this state, 
or in the science of music. ( Scr. 1, chap. 228 of 1845. ) 

This statute was entitled " An act to prevent the disturbance of even- 
ing schools in the several school district houses of this state." The terms 
of the act are much broader than its title, and extend to an assemblage of 
persons at any time of the day, as well as in the evening. It has been 
repeatedly held, that the title is no part of a statute {Bwarris on 
Statutes, 653) ; and though the title is sometimes referred to for aid in 
removing ambiguities, where the intention of the legislature cannot be 
plainly gathered from what are acknowledged parts of the statute, it is 
not to restrict the clear meaning of the latter, and is regarded in any 
case as having only slight influence in its exposition. ( 1 Grai/ Mass. 
B., 4.11.) 

No. 184. Whoever shall violate the provisions of the fore- 
going section may be tried before any justice of the peace of 
the county, or any mayor, alderman, recorder or other magis- 
trate of any city where the offence shall be committed, and, 
upon conviction, shall forfeit a sum not exceeding twenty- 
five dollars, for the use and benefit of the school district in 
which such offence shall be committed. ( Sec. 2, chap. 228 of 
1845.) 

No. 185. It shall be the duty of the trustees of any school 
district in which any such offence shall be committed to pro- 
secute such offender before any officer having cognizance of 
such offence. ( Sec. 3, chap. 228 of 1845. ) 

No. 186. If any person convicted of the offence herein pro- 
hibited shall not immediately pay the penalty incurred, with 
the costs of conviction, or give security, to the satisfaction of 
the officer before whom such conviction shall be had, for the 
payment of the said penalty and costs within twenty days 
thereafter, he shall be committed by warrant to the common 
jail of the county until the same be paid, or for such term, 
not exceeding thirty days, as shall be specified in such war- 
rant. {Sec. 4, chap. 228 of 1845.) 

No. 187. It shall and may be lawful for any person who 
may be complained of for a violation of the provisions of this 
act to demand of such magistrate that he may be tried by a 

[Code.] 44 



346 MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS; 

jury. Upon such demand, it shall be the duty of such officer 
to issue a venire to the proper officer, commanding him to 
summon the same number of jurors, and in the same manner, 
and the said court shall proceed to empannel a jury for the 
trial of said cause, in the same manner and subject to all the 
rules and regulations prescribed in the act providing for the 
trials by jury in courts of special sessions. {Sec. 5, chajj. 228 
oflS45.) 

No. 188. All such provisions of law as are repugnant to or 
inconsistent with the provisions of this title are hereby 
repealed ; but nothing herein contained shall be so construed 
as to impair or affect any of the local provisions respecting 
the organization and management of schools in any of the 
incorporated cities or villages or towns of this state, except as 
the same are affected by the preceding sections of this act. 
( Sec. 150, chap. 480 of 1847. ) 

The act of 1851, to establish free schools throughout the state, chap. 
151, § 8, has a similar saving of all special acts relating to schools in 
any of the incorporated cities or villages of the state, except so far as 
they are inconsistent with the first {JVo. 149, ante), second, third and 
fourth sections thereof. The latter sections, which relate to the amount 
of the state tax for schools, and mode of distributing its proceeds, have 
been superseded by Nos. 25 to 32, inclusive. 

No. 189. If any person, for gambling purposes, shall keep 
or exhibit any gambling table, establishment, device or appa- 
ratus, or if any person or persons shall be guilty of dealing 
"faro" or banking for others to deal "faro," or acting as 
"look-out" or game-keeper for the game of "faro" or any 
other banking game, where money or property is dependent 
on the result, or if any person shall sell or vend what are 
commonly known as or are called lottery policies, or any 
writing, card, paper or document in the nature of a bet, 
wager or insurance upon the drawing or drawn numbers of 
any public or private lottery, or if any person shall endorse 
a book or any other document for the purpose of enabling 
others to sell or vend lottery policies, he shall be taken and 
held as a common gambler, and, upon conviction thereof, shall 
be sentenced to not less than ten days' hard labor in the peni- 
tentiary, or not more than two years hard labor in the state 
prison, and be fined in any sum not more than one thousand 



UNION FREE SCHOOL LAW. 347 

dollars, to be paid into the county treasury where such con- 
viction shall take place, for the use of the common schools 
therein, to be divided among the school districts in that 
county, in the same manner as the school money of the state 
is divided among said districts, and in default thereof shall 
remain imprisoned until such fine be remitted or paid. ( Sec. 
2, chap. 504 o/'lSSl, as amended by chap. 214 oflSbb.) 



UNION FREE SCHOOL LAW. 

No. 190. Whenever fifteen persons, entitled to vote at any 
meeting of the inhabitants of any school district in the state, 
shall sign a call for any such meeting, to be held for the pur- 
pose of determining, by a vote of such district, whether an 
union free school shall be established therein, in conformity 
with the provisions of this act, it shall be the duty of the 
trustees of such district, within ten days after such call shall 
have been presented to them, to give public notice that a 
meeting of the inhabitants of such district, entitled to vote 
thereat, will be held for such purpose as aforesaid, at the 
school-house, or other more suitable place, in such district, at 
a day and hour in such notice to be specified, not more than 
twenty days after the publication of such notice. The quali- 
fications of such inhabitants, entitled to vote at such meeting 
as now by law expressed, shall be sufficiently set forth in the 
several notices aforesaid. {Sec. 1, chap. 433 o/"1853.) 

This act is entitled " An act to provide for the establishment of union 
free schools." The above section relates* to the measures for introducing 
the system which it establishes into a single district, while a subsequent 
one provides for the consolidation of districts for that purpose. The 
form of the call by the inhabitants may be as follows : " The under- 
signed, inhabitants of School District No. , in the town of , 
entitled to vote at any meetings of the inhabitants of said district, 
hereby call for a meeting, to be held for the purpose of determining by 
a vote of such district whether an union fi-ee school shall be established 
therein, in conformity to the provisions of chap. 433 of the Laws 
of 1853." 

This, being first signed by at least fifteen qualified voters, should be 
del?lfered to the trustees. The notice to be given by the trustees should 
consist, first, of a copy of the call and of the signatures thereto, after 
which the notice should proceed as follows : 



348 UNION FREE SCHOOL LAW. 

" The undersigned, trustees of School District No. , in the town 

of , in compliance with a call of fifteen (or, more than fifteen) 

persons, entitled to vote at any meeting of the inhabitants of said 
district, of which the above is a copy, hereby give notice that a 
meeting of the inhabitants of said district, entitled to vote thereat, 
viz., every male person of fall age, residing therein, and entitled to hold 
lands in this state, who owns or hires real property in such district, sub- 
ject to taxation for school purposes ; every resident of such district 
authorized to vote at town meetings of the town of (in a joint 

district, say either of the towns, of , or ), and who has paid any 
rate bill for teachers' wages in said district within one year preceding 
the day of (the date of the meeting, not of the notice), 

or who owns any personal property liable to be taxed for school pur- 
poses in said district exceeding fifty dollars in value, exclusive of such 
as is exempt from execution, will be held at ( the school-house, or other 
more suitable place) on the day of next, at o'clock 

in the noon, for the purpose of determining by a vote of such 

district whether an union free school shall be established therein, in 
conformity to the provisions of chap. 433 of the Laws of 1853. Dated 
this day of ,185 . 

(signed) A. B., "^ Trustees of District 
C. D., \ No. in the 

E. F., ; town of ." 

The day to be specified in the notice must be not more than twenty 
days after the first posting of the notices. The statute appears to 
require the posting of the original call of the inhabitants and notice of 
the trustees, and at least five copies thereof in addition ; and, also, that 
a taxable inhabitant, designated by the trustees, shall be required to give 
personal notice, in the manner provided by No. 82, ante. His failure 
to do so, in full, would expose him to a penalty of |5, but would not 
ecessarily invalidate the proceedings of the mejetmg. 

No. 191. The notices aforesaid, and at least five written 
or printed copies thereof, shall be severally posted at various 
conspicuous places in, and may also be published in any 
newspaper circulating within such districts. The trustees of 
any such district shall authorize and require any taxable 
inhabitant of the same to notify every other inhabitant 
(qualified to vote as aforesaid) of such meeting, to be called 
as aforesaid, who shall give such notification in the manner, 



UNION FREE SCHOOL LAW. U9 

and subject to the penalty, by law provided in the case of the 
formation of new school districts. ( Sec. 2, chap. 433 of 1853. ) 

No. 192. The reasonable expense of such notices and of 
their publication and service shall be chargeable upon the 
district, in case an union free school is established therein 
under the provisions of this act, to be levied and collected 
upon and from the said district by the trustees, as in cases of 
taxes now levied for school purposes ; and if in the event 
such union free school shall not be established, then the said 
expense shall be chargeable upon the inhabitants signing the 
call, jointly and severally, to be sued for if necessary in any 
court having jurisdiction of the same. [Sec. 3, chap. 433 of 
1853.) 

No. 193. Whenever fifteen persons, entitled as aforesaid, 
from each of two or more adjoining districts shall unite in a 
call for the consolidation of the same, and also for a meeting 
of the inhabitants entitled to vote, as aforesaid, in such 
districts to determine whether an union free school shall be 
established within the limits of such districts, pursuant to the 
provisions of this act, it shall be the duty of the trustees of 
such districts, or a majority of them, to give like public notice 
of such meeting, at some convenient place within such dis- 
tricts, and as central as may be, within the time and to be 
published in the manner set forth in the foregoing section, in 
each of said districts. The reasonable expenses of said notices 
and their service, in each of said districts, to be chargeable 
upon them in equal shares, or on the inhabitants signing the 
several calls therein, as by the foregoing section is provided. 
( Sec. 4, chap. 433 of 1853. ) 

The form of the call under this section may be same as that above 
given under No. 190, except that it should expressly call "for the con- 
solidation of said districts (the numbers of which will be previously 
, stated) and for a meeting," &c. It must be signed by at least thirty, or, 
if it is proposed to consolidate three districts, by forty-five persons, 
fifteen of whom must be qualified voters in each of the districts. The 
trustees of each district should appoint a taxable inhabitant to give per- 
sonal notice therein ; and an original and five copies of the call and 
notice should be posted in each of the districts, signed by a majority of 
the board composed of the trustees of all the districts to Avhich the 
notice relates. The place of meeting may be in either district. It is 



350 UNION FREE SCHOOL LAW. 

important that the original <5all and notices should be preserved, to be 
filed ■with the certified copy of the minutes in the county clerk's oflSce. 
If the proposed consolidated district includes parts of more than one 
county, the call and notices should be signed in duplicate. 

No. 194. Any such meeting, to be held as aforesaid, shall 
be organized by the appointment of a chairman and secretary, 
and may be adjourned from time to time if deemed by a 
majority vote expedient, provided any such adjournment shall 
not be for a longer period than ten days ; and at any such 
meeting, where at least one-third of such inhabitants of such 
district are present, whenever the question whether an union 
free school shall be established, in pursuance of the call for 
such meeting, shall be determined by a two-third vote of 
those present and entitled to vote, as aforesaid, in the affirma- 
tive, it shall then be lawful for such meeting to proceed to 
the election, by ballot, of not less than three nor more than 
nine trustees, who shall, by the order of such meeting, be 
divided into three several classes, the first class to hold for 
one, the second for two, and the third for three years ; and 
thereupon the office of any existing board of trustees shall 
cease. The said trustees and their successors in office shall 
constitute a board of education of and for the city, village, 
district or districts for which they are elected, and the desig- 
nation of the place, whether as of such city, village or school 
district number , in the town of , or of consolidated 

school districts numbers and , in the town of , 

shall be comprised in the title of said board, and the said 
board shall have the name and style of the board of education 
of (adding the designation aforesaid). Copies of the 

said call, minutes of said meeting or meetings, duly certified by 
the chairman and secretary thereof, shall be by them or either 
of them transmitted and deposited, one to and with the town 
clerk, one to and with the clerk of the county in which said 
districts are located, and one to and with the State Superin- 
tendent ; but when at any such meetings the question as to 
the establishment of an union free school shall not be decided 
in the affirmative, as aforesaid, then all further proceedings at 
such meeting, except a motion to reconsider or adjourn, shall 
be dispensed with, and no such meeting shall be again called 
within one year thereafter. {Sec. 5, chaj). 433 o/lS53.) 

It is important that it should appear from the proceedings of the 
meeting that at least one-third of the inhabitants of each district con- 



UNION FREE SCHOOL LAW. 351 

cerned are present. For this purpose, as soon as the meeting is organized 
by the election of a chairman and secretary, the clerk of each district 
or the inhabitant required to give notice therein should make a return, 
specifying the names of the voters in his district, which should be read 
by the secretary, and the names of those present from each district 
entered upon his minutes. 

The numbers and constitution of the meeting being thus ascertained, 
and found to be sufficient to give jurisdiction of the subject, the question 
should be brought before it by a resolution that " a union free school 
be established within the limits of Districts No. , in the town of 
, and No. , in the town of , pursuant to the provisions 

of chap. 433 of the Laws of 1853." The meeting may adjourn from 
time to time by the vote of a majority of those present, although less 
than one-third of the inhabitants, for not more than ten days at each 
time. At any such adjourned session the question may be taken, on 
the resolution above mentioned ; but when it has once been decided in 
the negative, by failing to receive a two-third vote, no further proceed- 
ings are in order except a motion to adjourn without day or a motion 
to reconsider, which latter motion may be carried by a majority vote, 
and the session may then be adjourned. On the reconsideration, at the 
adjourned meeting, if the resolution should be again lost, all further 
proceedings are to be suspended. 

If the resolution to establish a free school shall pass the meeting, it 
. should next fix upon the number of trustees to constitute the board of 
education. As the statute has made no provision for subsequently 
increasing or diminishing the number of the board, it should not be 
fixed without mature deliberation. It may be a number not divisible 
by three, as five or seven, and in such case the meeting may divide them 
into unequal classes, by a resolution which should be adopted before 
proceeding to an election. 

It seems to be the intent of this act — which is singularly wanting in 
perspicuity — that an annual meeting of the inhabitants should be held 
to elect trustees, as vacancies occur by the expiration of their office. 
The meeting should, before adjourning, appoint a time for the next 
annual election, except in the case provided for in the next section, and 
should annually repeat such appointment. 

iVo. 195. Whenever said board of education shall be consti- 
tuted for any district or districts whose limits correspond with 
those of any incorporated village or city, the three classes 



352 UNION FREE SCHOOL LAW. 

shall hold jointly until the next charter election for such 
village or city, and their regular term of service as by the 
foregoing section shall be computed from the several days of 
such charter elections. And thereafter there shall be annu- 
ally elected in such villages and cities, in the same manner as 
and upon the same ticket with the charter officers thereof, 
trustees of the said union free schools, to supply the places of 
those whose terms by the classification aforesaid are about to 
expire. The term of office of all trustees elected under the 
provisions of this act, after the first election as aforesaid, shall 
be three years. {Sec. 6, chap. 433 of 1S53.) 

No. 196. The said boards of education are hereby severally 
created bodies corporate ; and each shall, at their first meet- 
ing, and at times thereafter fixed by their by-laws as for their 
annual meetings, elect one of their number president, another 
the clerk thereof, the latter of whom shall also be the general 
librarian for the district. In districts other than those whose 
limits correspond with those of any city or incorporated 
village, said board shall have power to appoint one of the 
taxable inhabitants of their district treasurer, and another 
collector of the moneys raised and to be raised within the 
same for school purposes, who shall severally hold such 
appointments for one year from the date thereof, and until 
others are appointed in their stead, unless sooner removed by 
the board for cause. Such treasurer and collector shall, 
severally, and within ten days after notice of the appointment, 
in writing, duly served upon them, and before entering upon 
the duties of their offices, execute and deliver to the said 
board of education a bond, with such sufficient penalty and 
sureties as the board may require, conditioned for the faithful 
discharge of the duties of their respective offices. And in case 
such bond shall not be given within the time specified, such 
offices shall thereby become vacant, and said board shall 
thereupon make other appointments to supply such vacancies. 
( Sec. 7, chap. 433 of 1853. ) 

The annual meeting, herein referred to, is the annual meeting of the 
board of education, not that of the inhabitants. In respect to the 
treasurer and collector, the statute evidently contemplates that neither 
of them shall be a member of the board. The bond to be given by 
those officers, which the board has no power to waive, should run to 
the board of education in its corporate name. 



UNION FREE SCHOOL LAW. 353 

No. 197. The coi-porate authorities of any incorporated 
village or city, in which any such union free school shall be 
established, shall have power, and it shall be their duty, 
to raise from time to time by tax, to be levied upon all 
the real and personal property in said cities and villages 
respectively, as by law provided for the defraying of the 
expenses of their respective municipal governments, such 
sum or sums as the board of education established therein 
shall declare necessary (in a detailed statement, to be fur- 
nished in writing by the said board to such municipal 
authorities, of each and every expenditure so declared to be 
necessary) for the furtherance of any of the powers vested in 
them by law ; provided, however, that the said corporate 
authorities shall have power to refuse for one year any sup- 
plies other than those for the annual support of the teachers 
of said union free schools, and the necessary contingent 
expenses of the said schools. And in case the said corporate 
authorities shall refuse, as aforesaid, they shall communicate 
in writing to the said board of education their objections to 
each and every expenditure which they may, under the power 
as aforesaid, refuse to allow ; and thereupon, the said board 
of education shall cause the said communication to be pub- 
lished six times in at least one paper circulating in said village 
or city. Nothing in this section contained shall be construed 
to prohibit any such municipal government of any city or 
village from reconsidering their vote in regard to the refusal 
of any such supplies, as aforesaid, within the year above 
specified. ( Sec. 8, chap. 433 of 1853.) 

This section, doubtless, is applicable to those villages and cities only 
who correspond in their limits with an union free school district, as 
described in § 6, The above section denies by implication the power 
of the city or village corporate authorities to refuse supplies " for the 
annual support of the teachers of said union free schools, and the 
necessary contingent expenses of said schools." 

The salaries of the teachers are by a subsequent section to be fixed 
by the board of education, and the general school law requires schools 
to be maintained for at least six months. The decision of the supreme 
court of Massachusetts [£atchelder v. Citi/ of Salem, 4 Cusliing, 602) 
is an authority for the position that the teachers might maintain an 
action against the village or city for the amount of six months' wages 
at the rate fixed by their contract with the board of education. The 

fCoDE.] 45 



354 UNION FREE SCHOOL LAW. 

framers of our statute seem to have designed that the school should be 
maintained during the whole year ; but in this as in various other par- 
ticulars the union free school law is not only ambiguous as to its purpose, 
but deficient in prescribing the means by which it is to be effected. 

By " the necessary contingent expenses of said schools," the framers 
of the act probably meant all those expenses which are necessary to 
keep the ordinary machinery of education at work, without making 
improvements or permanent additions to it, such as the cost of warming, 
lighting, cleaning and repairing the school buildings, and renewing the 
necessary annual decay and wear of their furniture and apparatus. The 
act is open to the construction that it is within the discretion of the 
village authorities to determine what are necessary contingent expenses. 

No. 198. The taxable inhabitants of any districts, as afore- 
said, other than those whose limits correspond with those of 
any city or incorporated village, at any annual or special 
meeting, held as by provisions of existing law, may vote to 
authorize such acts and raise such sums of money as they shall 
deem expedient for the purpose of making additions, altera- 
tions or improvements,^with reference to site or structures, in 
the academy or union free school buildings, or of buying 
apparatus or fixtures, or for such other purpose as they may 
by a two-third vote approve ; and to direct the trustees to 
cause the sums voted to be levied and raised by instalments or 
directly by a tax ; and such trustees shall make out a tax list, 
in the manner by law provided in cases of school district 
taxes, and direct such taxes or such instalments to be collected 
at the times they shall become due. And the inhabitants of 
such districts shall have no power to rescind the vote to raise 
such money, or to reduce the amount at any subsequent 
meeting, unless the same be done within ten days after the 
same shall have been first voted. ( Sec. 9, chap. 433 of 1853. ) 

This section must be understood as intending to confer upon the 
inhabitants, assembled in district meeting, powers additional to those 
which they would have possessed under the general law, if they had 
not organized a free school district. It gives them the power to raise 
such sums as they may deem expedient, without limitation as to the 
amount for making additions and improvements to sites, buildings, fix- 
tures and apparatus. These are mere investments of money for 
permanent objects, which remain as a part of the capital of the district, 
and are m their nature different from those expenditures which disappeai 



UNION FREE SCHOOL LAW. 355 

in the using, and leave nothing behind capable of sale, and thereby 
of replacing their original cost. There is no reason in law or in the 
grammatical construction of the act for supposing that, in regard to 
raising money for these specially enumerated objects, any other rule is 
to prevail than that of the common law, which makes a majority vote 
equivalent to a unanimous one. 

The section proceeds to confer an additional power to raise money 
" for such other purpose as they may by a two-third vote approve." It 
imposes no express limitation, and none can be raised by intendment, 
other than that those purposes must be in furtherance of the general 
objects of the corporation. There can be no doubt that by a two-third 
vote, the meeting may authorize the trustees to levy a tax to pay the 
teachers, so as to dispense with any rate bills. "Whether, independent of 
such vote, it was the intent of the law that rate bills should be collected 
for tuition, is a question that admits of much argument without a satis- 
factory conclusion. It speaks throughout of free schools. The question 
at the organization is "whether an union free school shall be estab- 
lished?" and to carry this requires a two-third vote, which may be 
regarded as the approval of the purpose of all taxes necessary to make 
the school free. Our standard lexicographer gives, as a definition of 
this adjective, " open to all, without restriction or expense, as a free 
school." Nevertheless, there are passages in the act from which the 
power of the board to levy a rate bill may be plausibly inferred. The 
question must wait for judicial determination or further legislation. 

In the vote authorizing a tax, the inhabitants may direct at what time 
and by what instalments it shall be raised. The sums and periods may 
be equal or unequal in their discretion. 

iVb. 199. Whenever any school districts shall have been 
consolidated as aforesaid, or by any provision of law, they 
shall be entitled to the same portion of the one-third of the 
public moneys, distributed among the several school districts, 
in pursuance of an act entitled " An act to establish free 
schools throughout the state," passed April 12, 1851, as they 
would have been entitled to if they had not been consolidated ; 
provided that they shall not receive such portions for any 
longer period than for five years after the passage of this act, 
in the cases of all districts already consolidated, and in other 
cases for five years after such consolidation shall have been 
effected as aforesaid. {Sec. 10, cAop. 433 o/'1853,) 



356 UNION FREE SCHOOL LAW. 

This section is in effect repealed by the provisions of No. 30 and No. 
31, ante^ for a different mode of distributing the district quotas. It 
would be well, nevertheless, for the school commissioners to give, in their 
reports, the date of the organization of every union free school or con- 
solidated district. 

No. 200. The said boards of education, by this act esta- 
blished, shall severally have power : 

1. To pass such by-laws as they may deem proper for the 
regulation and exercise of their lawful business and powers ; 

2. To fill any vacancy which may happen in said board by 
reason of the death, removal or refusal to serve of any mem- 
ber or officer of said board ; and the person so appointed, in 
the place of any such member of the board, shall hold his 
office until the next election of trustees, as by this act pro- 
vided ; 

3. To remove any member of their board for official miscon- 
duct. But a written copy of all charges made, of such mis- 
conduct, shall be served upon him at least ten days before 
the time appointed for a hearing of the same ; and he shall 
be allowed a full and fair opportunity to refute such charges 
before removal ; 

4. To take charge and possession of the school-houses, sites, 
lots, furniture, books, apparatus, and all school property 
within their respective districts ; and the title of the same shall 
be vested respectively in said boards of education, and the 
same shall not be subject to taxation for any purpose ; 

5. To take and hold, and for the use of the said schools or of 
any department of the same, any real estate transferred to it 
by gift, grant, bequest or devise, or any gift, legacy or 
annuity, of whatever kind, given or bequeathed to the said 
board, and apply the same, or the interest or proceeds thereof, 
according to the instructions of the donor or testator ; 

6. To have, in all respects, the superintendence, manage- 
ment and control of said union free schools, and to establish in 
the same an academical department, whenever in their judg- 
ment the same is warranted by the demand for such instruc- 
tion ; to receive into said union free schools any pupils 
residing out of said districts, and to regulate and establish the 
tuition fees of such non-resident pupils in the several depart- 
ments of said schools, and also those of scholars residing in 
said districts and attending its academical department; to 
regulate, in accordance with the provisions of this act. the 



UNION FREE SCHOOL LAW. 357 

transfer of scholars from the primary to the academical 
departments, and from class to class, as their degree of scholar- 
ship may warrant ; to direct what text books shall foe used 
therein ; to provide fuel, furniture, apparatus and other neces- 
saries for the use of said schools, and to appoint such assistant 
librarians as they may, from time to time, deem necessary ; 

7. To contract with, license and employ teachers competent 
in the several departments of instruction, in all not less than 
one for every sixty scholars attending such schools ; to remove 
them at any time for neglect of duty or immoral conduct, and 
to pay the wages of such teachers out of the moneys appro- 
priated for that purpose ; 

8. And generally to possess all the powers and privileges, 
and be subject to all the duties in respect to the common 
schools, or the common school departments in any union free 
school in said districts, which the trustees of common schools 
now possess or are subject to, not inconsistent with the pro- 
visions of this act ; and to enjoy, whenever an academical 
department shall be by them established, all the immunities 
and privileges now enjoyed by the academies of this state. 
{Sec. 11, chap. 433 o/1853.) 

Such exposition as may be required of the power and duties of the 
board of education, under this section, will be found in the preceding 
pages under the similar provisions of the general law relating to the 
different school officers. Under the 8th subdivision it is the duty 
of the board of education to make an annual report to the school 
commissioner, and to submit an annual account to the inhabitants 
assembled in district meeting, in the same manner as the trustees of 
ordinary districts. Such reports should be adopted at a meeting of the 
board, and authenticated by the signature of its president and secretary. 

No. 201. It shall be the duty of each of the said boards of 
education to have a regular meeting at least once in each 
quarter, and at such meetings to appoint one or more com- 
mittees, each to consist of not less than three of their own 
number, to visit every school or department under the super- 
vision of said board, and such committees shall visit all said 
schools at least twice in each quarter, and report at the next 
regular meeting of the board on the condition and prospects 
thereof. {Sec. 12, chap. 433 o/1853.) 



358 UNION FREE SCHOOL LAW. 

No. 202. It shall also be the duty of said boards, respec- 
tively, to have reference in all their expenditures and con- 
tracts to the amount of moneys which shall be appropriated, 
or. subject to their order or drafts, during the current year, 
and not to exceed that amount. And said boards shall seve- 
rally apply all the public moneys apportioned to the common 
school districts under their charge to the departments below 
the academical ; and all moneys from that of the literature 
fund or otherwise, appropriated for the support of the academi- 
cal departments, to the latter departments. {Sec. 13, chap. 
433o/i853.) 

No. 203. All moneys raised for the use of the union free 
schools in any city or incorporated village, or apportioned to 
the same from the income of the literature, common school or 
United States deposit funds, or otherwise, shall be paid into 
the treasury of such city or village, to the credit of the board 
of education therein ; and the funds so received into such 
treasury shall be kept separate and distinct from any other 
funds received into the said treasury. And the officer having 
the charge thereof, shall give such additional security for the 
safe custody thereof as the corporate authorities of such city 
or village shall require. No money shall be drawn from such 
funds, credited to the several boards of education, unless in 
pursuance of a resolution or resolutions of said board, and on 
drafts drawn by the president and countersigned by the secre- 
tary, payable to the order of the person or persons entitled to 
receive such money, and stating on their face the purpose or 
service for which such moneys have been authorized to be 
paid by the said board of education. ( Sec. 14, chap. 433 of 
1853.) 

No. 204. All moneys raised for the use of said union free 
schools, other than those whose limits correspond with those 
of any cities and incorporated villages, or apportioned from 
the income of the literature or common school or United 
States deposit funds, or otherwise, shall be paid to the respec- 
tive treasurers of the said several boards of education entitled 
to receive the same, and be by them applied to the uses of 
said several boards, who shall annually render their accounts 
of all moneys received and expended by them for the use of 
said schools, with every voucher for the same, and certified 
copies of all orders of the said boards touching the same, to 



UNION FREE SCHOOL LAW. 859 

the [school commissioner] of the town in which said districts 
are severally located. ( Sec. 15, cha'p. 433 of 1853. ) 

No. 205. Every academical department, so as to be estab- 
lished as aforesaid, shall be under the visitation of the regents 
of the university, and shall be subject in its course of educa- 
tion and matters pertaining thereto (but not in reference to 
the buildings or erections in which the same is held, unless 
in cases where the buildings aforesaid are separate from those 
of the common school department) to all the regulations 
made in regard to academies by the said regents. In such 
departments, the qualifications for the entrance of any pupil 
shall be the same as those established by the said regents for 
admission into any academy of the state under their super- 
vision. {Sec 16, chap. 433 o/'1853.) 

No. 206. Whenever an union school shall be established 
under the provisions of this act, and there shall exist within 
its district an academy, the trustees thereof may, by an 
unanimous vote, to be attested by their signatures and filed 
in the office of the clerk of the county, declare their offices 
vacant ; and thereafter the trustees of such union school shall 
become the trustees of the said academy, and be charged with 
all the duties of the former trustees, and the said academy 
shall be regarded as the academical department of such union 
school. {Sec. 17, cliay. 433 o/1853.) 

Although the effect of this provision probably is to transfer to the 
trustees of the free school district all corporate property rested in the 
trustees of the academy, it will be prudent for the latter, in pursuance 
of a resolution to that effect adopted at a regular meeting, to execute a 
deed of all their corporate property to the board of education. 

No. 207. All acts or parts of acts inconsistent vsdth the 
provisions aforesaid are hereby repealed ; and the provisions 
of this act, in reference to the establishment of academical 
departments, shall be as applicable to those school districts 
or villages where free schools have been established, by 
special charter, as if no such charter had been granted ; but 
nothing in this act shall be construed to impair the charters 
or alter or abridge the rights or privileges of any free schools 
now by law established in any city of the state. {Sec. 18, 
6Aff;p. 433 0/1853.) 



360 REAPPORTIONMENT OF MONEY, 



REAPPORTIONMENT OF UNEXPENDED MONEY. 

No. 208. All moneys apportioned by the [ school commis- 
sioners ] to the trustees of a district, part of a district or sepa- 
rate neighborhood, which shall have remained in the hands 
of the [supervisor] for one year after such apportionment, by 
reason of the trustees neglecting or refusing to receive the 
same, shall be added to the moneys next thereafter to be 
apportioned by the [school commissioners], and shall be 
apportioned and paid therewith in the same manner. ( Sec. 
17, chafp. 480 of 1847, modified in conformity to Nos. 32 and 50. ) 

The trustees, strictly speaking, receive nothing but library money. 
The payment of their orders, drawn in favor of teachers, must be 
regarded as equivalent to its reception by the trustees, in order to give 
any force to this section ; and their neglect to exhaust the money, by 
such orders, as abandoning it for reapportionment among all the dis- 
tricts of the county. They are to draw such orders in payment for 
teachers' wages earned during the year in which the money was appor- 
tioned, and are required to report before the fifteenth day of January 
that all the money received has been so applied. A year " after the 
previous apportionment" does not expire, however, before the first 
Tuesday of April, and until it has expired the supervisor is at liberty to 
pay orders for teachers' wages earned previous to the first of January. 
It is his duty to report to the school commissioner in charge of the 
district to which his town belongs the amount of all sums then remain- 
ing unexpended in his hands, that it may be apportioned to the several 
districts of the county, and charged to such town as a partial payment 
of the sum to which it is entitled on the new apportionment. A com- 
parison of the sum reported, as received by the trustees, with the amount 
apportioned to the district the previous year, will furnish the commis- 
sioners with information which ought to correspond with the report of 
the supervisor. If the trustees reports are correct, the commissioners 
■will learn from them how much mone}'^ is to be reapportioned, without 
waiting for the report of the supervisor. 



LOCAL LAWS AND REGULATIONS 

RESPECTING 

COMMON SCHOOLS. 



ALBANY. 

[Laws of 1844, chap. 128.] ' 



Section 1. The mayor and recorder of the city of Albany, and the regents of 
the university residing in said city, shall, without delay, appoint nine persona, 
residents of the city of Albany, to be denominated a board of commissioners of 
the district schools of the city of Albany, who shall be divided by lot into three 
classes, to be numbered one, two and three ; the term of ofnce of the first class 
shall be one year, from the first daj'^ of June next ; of the second, two ; and of 
the third, three years from that day ; and three commissioners shall thereafter 
annually be appointed, by the said mayor and recorder of the city of Albany 
and the regents of the university residing in said city, in place of those whose 
terms of office shall expire, who shall hold their office for three years, and until 
their successors be duly appointed. In case of a vacancy in the office of either 
of the commissioners, during the period for which he or they shalLhave been 
respectively appointed, the said mayor and recorder of the city of Albany and 
the regents of the university residing in the said city shall fill such vacancy, and 
the person or persons appointed to fill such vacancy shall hold the office only for 
th6 unexpired term so becoming vacant. 

§ 2. Any member of said board of commissioners may be removed, for cause, 
from office, by a vote of two-thirds of the persons authorized by the preceding 
section to appoint such commissioners ; and any vacancy so made shall be filled 
in the manner already provided. 

§ 3. The board of commissioners shall have power to appoint one of their 
number president of said board, who shall have the powers usually incident to 
such office ; and said board shall have power, and it shall be their duty, to 
appoint a secretary to said board, who shall perform such duties as the said 
board from time to time may direct, and who shall receive therefor such com- 
pensation, not exceeding one hundred and fifty dollars annually, as the said 
board shall provide, out of any moneys remaining unexpended in the hands of 
said board. 

§ 4. The board of commissioners shall have power, and it shall be their duty, 
to contract with and employ the teachers of the district schools of said city ; to 
remove any teacher upon manifest neglect of duty, or upon violation of his or 
her contract ; to appoint a collector for the said district schools ; to make out 
rats bills and exempt indigent children therefrom ; to select and introduce uniform 

[Code.] 46 



362 ALBANY. 

class books into said schools ; to supply indigent pupils with said class bookis, by 
using and appropriating for that purpose a portion of the library money, not 
exceeding three hundred dollars in any one year ; to appropriate and use, for the 
purpose of keeping in repair the several libraries of said district schools, for 
increasing the same, and for purchasing maps and apparatus for said schools, a 
farther portion of said library money, not exceeding three hundred dollars annu- 
ally ; to provide for the instruction of the pupils of said district schools in vocal 
music, by appropriating a farther portion of said library money, not exceeding 
four hundred dollars annually ; to secure, with whatever may remain unexpended 
of said library money, the education of such number of indigent pupils from 
said district schools^ in either of the academies or in any normal school of said 
city, by paying for their tuition therein, as the common council of said city may 
sanction — but all children so educated shall have been members of said district 
schools for at least two years, and neither of such academies shall receive from 
the distribution of the literature fund any sum for or on account of such pupils, 
and such academies shall in their annual report to the regents of the university 
state the number of such pupils taught therein, and no portion of said unexpended 
money shall be so appropriated until the ordinary expenses of said district schools 
for libraries and tuition are first satisfied ; to visit the district school as often as 
once a quarter ; to hold a meeting of the board once a month, and at the quarterly 
meetings of said board to require the presence and reports of the several principal 
teachers of said schools ; to make a semi-annual report of all the acts of said 
board to the common council, and to make and publish an annual report in two of 
the daily papers of said city ; and generally to possess the powers, discharge the 
duties and be subject to all of the obligations of the several trustees and other 
school ofiicers of the said city of Albany, as granted and imposed by the several 
acts now in force in relation to said district schools of said city. 

§ 5. The board of commissioners shall have power, and it shall be their duty, 
to make such by-laws and regulations as may be necessary for the prosperity, 
good order and sound discipline of said district schools ; for the security and 
preservation of the school-houses and other property belonging to said districts ; 
and generally to carry into effect the provisions of the several school acts of said 
city ; and when said by-laws and regulations are sanctioned by the persons autho- 
rized by this act to appoint said commissioners, they shall take effect, and not 
before. 

Nothing in this act shall be so construed as to authorize said boai'd to incur any 
obligation that shall increase the taxes of said city. 

[Laws of 1865, chap. 516.] 

Section 1. The board of commissioners of the district schools of the city of 
Albany shall hereafter be known as the board of education of the city of Albany. 

§ 2. On or before the first day of June next, the common council of the city 
of Albany shall elect by ballot three persons, residents of the city of Albany, in 
place of those members of said board of education whose terms of olfice shall 
then expire, who shall hold their offices for three years from the first day of June, 
1855, and until their successors shall be duly appointed ; and three persons, resi- 
dents as aforesaid, shall thereafter, on or before the first day of June in each 
year, be elected by the said common council, in like manner, in place of those 
members of said board of education whose terms of office shall then expire, who 
shall hold their offices for three years, and until their successors shall be duly 
elected. At such elections, no member of said common council shall vote for 
more than two persons, and the three persons receiving the highest number of 
votes shall be declared elected. In case of any vacancy in said board, the com- 
mon council shall fill the same, and the persons so appointed shall hold the oflSce 
only for the residue of the term. 

§ 3. Any member of said board of education may be removed for cause, by a 
vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to said common council, and any 
vacancy so made shall be filled in the manner already provided. 



AUBURN. 863 

§ 4. The said board of education shall appoint one of their number president, 
who shall have the powers usually incident to such office, and a secretary, who 
shall perform such duties as the said board may direct, and who shall receive 
therefor such compensation, not exceeding two hundred dollars, as the said board 
shall provide. 

§ 5. The said board of education shall possess all the powers now conferred 
on the board of commissioners of the district schools of the city of Albany, and 
shall perform such other duties in regard of education in the city of Albany as 
the said common council may, by a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected 
to the said common council, from time to time direct. 

§ 6. The said board of education shall have power, and it shall be their duty, 
to make such by-laws and regulations as may be necessary for the prosperity, 
good order and sound discipline of said schools, for the security and preservation 
of the school-houses and other property belonging to said schools, and generally 
t o carry into effect the provisions of this act, and said by-laws shall take effect 
when approved by the common council. 

§ 7. The said board of education shall report to the said common council 
annually, and oftener if required, the general condition of the schools under their 
charge, and shall, on or before the first day of November in each year, certify to 
the common council, by a vote of two-thirds of their whole number, the amount 
of money which will be required for the ensuing year for school purposes, exclu- 
sive of the public money, specifying the several purposes for which it will be 
required and the amount of each item. And the board of supervisors of the 
county of Albany shall, upon the requisition of the common council, passed by 
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to said common council, levy and 
collect the said sum upon the taxable property of the city of Albany, in the 
same manner as other taxes are levied and collected. 

§ 8. All school moneys whatever, whether received from the state or otherwise, 
shall be deposited with the chamberlain of said city, who shall keep a separate 
account thereof, and the same shall be drawn only by order of the said board of 
education, which shall specify the object to which the sum stated in said order is 
to be applied, and shall be signed by the president and secretary of said board. 

§ 9. All acts relating to the district schools of the city of Albany inconsistent 
with this act are hereby repealed. 



AUBURN. 
[ Ixms of 1850, chap. 349. ] 

Section 1. Title eight of an act to incorporate the city of Auburn, passed 
March 21, 1848, is hereby repealed. 

§2. The offices of the several trustees, clerks, collectors and librarians of 
school districts in the city of Auburn shall cease on the third Tuesday in April, 
one thousand eight hundred and fifty, in like manner as if the same had expired 
by lapse of time. The inhabitants of said city, qualified to vote at school district 
meetings, shall assemble in their respective school districts on the day last men- 
tioned, at the school-house in such district, and choose one trustee and a clerk 
of the district, who shall hold their respective offices until the next annual 
district meeting in the district for which they shall be respectively chosen, and 
until their successors shall have been severally chosen. Such annual district 
meeting shall hereafter be holden in the several districts in said city, on the 
second Monday in March, in each year; and from and after the passage of this 
act only one trustee shall be chosen annually in any school district in said city. 

§ 3. The trustee elected in any district in said city shall have the power, and 
it shall be his duty, to call special meetings of the inhabitants of such districts, 
liable to pay taxes, whenever he shall deem it necessary or proper ; to give notice 
of special, annual and adjourned meetings, in the manner prescribed in this act, 
if there be no clerk of the district, or he be absent or incapable of acting, or shall 



364 AUBURN 

refuse or neglect to give such notice ; to visit the schools kept in the district as 
often as once in each quarter, and to report the condition of the same, with such 
suggestions for the improvement thereof as he may deem proper, to the board of 
education hereinafter named, and to perform such other duties as may be from 
time to time imposed upon him by the said board of education. 

§ 4. It shall be sufficient notice of an annual, special, adjourned or first district 
meeting to affix such notice on the outer door of the district school-house, if 
there be any, and to post a copy of the same in three other public places in such 
district; the affixing and posting of such notice to be done at least ten days 
before such meeting, and no other notice of such meeting need be given. 

§ 5. It shall be the duty of the clerk of each school district to record the 
proceedings of his district in a book to be provided for that purpose by the said 
board of education ; to give notice, in the manner provided in the last preceding 
section, of the time and place of every annual district meeting or special district 
meetings, when ordered by the trustees of the district, and of any adjourned 
district meeting, when the same shall be adjourned for a longer period than one 
month ; to keep and preserve all records, books and papers belonging to his office, 
and to deliver the same to his successor in office. 

§ 6. Any vacancy in the office of district clerk may be supplied by the trustee 
of the district in which such vacancy shall happen ; but the person appointed to 
supply such vacancy shall hold the office only for the unexpired term. 

§ 7. The term of office of the superintendent of common schools in said city 
shall cease on the third Tuesday of April, one thousand eight hundred and fifty, 
in the same manner as if the same had expired by lapse of time. The common 
council of said city, at the last regular meeting thereof next preceding the third 
Tuesday of April next, shall appoint by ballot a superintendent of common 
schools, who shall hold his office until the second Monday of March, one thousand 
eight hundred and fifty-two. The common council of said city, at the annual 
meeting thereof, held on the second Monday of March, 1852, and as often 
thereafter as the tei-m of office of such superintendent of common schools shall 
expire, shall appoint a superintendent of common schools for said city, who shall 
hold his office for two years, and until a successor shall be appointed. The 
superintendent of common schools, so appointed, shall possess all the powers and 
be subject to all the duties and responsibilities of superintendents of common 
schools in towns, so far as the same are applicable, except as otherwise provided 
in this act ; in case of a vacancy in such office, the common council of said city 
shall supply the same by appointment for the unexpired term. 

§ 8. The common council of said city shall, at the last regular meeting thereof 
next preceding the third Tuesday of April, one thousand eight hundred and fifty, 
appoint one school commissioner in each of the wards of said city, who shall be 
residents of the wards for which thej^ are respectively appointed ; immediately 
upon the appointment of such school commissioners, the city clerk shall, in the 
presence of the common council, divide them by lot into four classes, to be num- 
bered one, two, three, four. Q'he term of office of the first class shall expire on 
the first Monday succeeding the first Tuesday in April, 1851 ; the second class in 
one year thereafter ; the third in two years, and the fourth in three years, and 
one commissioner only shall thereafter be annually appointed, who shall be 
appointed at the annual meeting of the common council, held on Monday next 
succeeding the annual election, and who shall be a resident of the same ward 
with the school commissioner whose term of office shall then expire, who shall 
hold his office for four years, and until a successor shall be duly appointed. In 
case of a vacancy in the office of either of the commissioners, the common council 
shall appoint a successor, who shall be a resident of the ward in which such 
vacancy shall occur, for the unexpired term. 

§ 9. The trustees of the several school districts so elected, and the school com- 
missioners so appointed, together with the mayor and superintendent of schools 
of said city, shall constitute and are hereby denominated the board of education 
for the city of Auburn. They shall meet on the first Tuesday of each and every 
month, and as much oftener as they shall from time to time appoint. A majority 



AUBURN. 365 

of the said board shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. The 
mayor shall be president of such board, and shall have power to call special 
meetings thereof in the manner provided by law for calling special meetings of 
the common council. In the absence of the mayor, the said board shall appoint 
some other member to preside at such meetings and perform the duties of the 
president. The superintendent of common schools shall be the clerk of such 
board ; he shall attend the meetings and keep a record of the proceedings of the 
said board ; he shall possess all the powers and be required to perform all the 
duties, in reference to the schools of said city, of town superintendents of common 
schools, except as otherwise in this act provided, and shall perform such other 
duties as the said board shall from time to time prescribe. 

§ 10. The board of education shall fix the compensation of the superintendent 
of common schools, for his services as clerk of such board, not exceeding one 
hundred dollars per year ; and for such other services as he may perform, other- 
wise than as such clerk, he shall be entitled to the same compensation as provided 
by law for town superintendents of schools for similar services, and his account 
therefor shall be audited by such board, and paid by the city treasurer out of the 
moneys in this act specified as the common school fund, and not otherwise. 

§ 11. The said boai-d of education shall possess all the powers conferred by 
law upon town superintendents of common schools, as to the formation and alter- 
ation of school districts within said city, except that in arranging such districts 
no territory without the limits of said city shall be included, nor shall any terri- 
tory within said city belong to or be taxed in any school district of any adjoining 
town; and shall possess all the powers and be subject to all the duties and 
responsibilities of trustees of common schools in towns, as to the several common 
or district schools within said city, so far as the same are applicable, except as 
otherwise in this act provided ; and shall have the custody of all the property, 
real and personal, belonging to or owned by the several school districts, and shall 
pay the compensation of the teachers of the said schools, and all other necessary 
and contingent expenses incurred in the support thereof; and shall appoint 
librarians to take charge of the several district libraries, who shall be subject to 
the control and hold their offices during the pleasure of such board ; and shall 
have the power, and it shall be their duty, to pass such by-laws and ordinances for 
the regulation, government, control and management of the common schools in 
said city, and of the teachers and pupils of such schools, and of the officers of 
the several school districts in said city, and for the safe keeping, disposition and 
management of the libraries, maps and apparatus appertaining to such schools, 
and to regulate the text books used in such schools, as they shall deem expedient ; 
and said board may prescribe a penalty for a violation of any ordinance or by-law, 
authorized by this act, not exceeding ten dollars, and an}^ such penalty may be 
sued for and recovered, with costs, in the name of the mayor and common council 
of the city of Auburn ; and the said board may subject the parent or guardian 
of any minor, and the master or mistress of any apprentice or servant, to any 
such penalty for a violation of any such ordinance or by-law by any such minor, 
apprentice or servant. 

§ 12. All penalties collected by virtue of this act shall be paid to the city 
treasurer, and by him deposited to the credit of the common school fund. 

§ 13. The clerk of the board of education shall keep a record of all by-laws 
and ordinances which shall be passed by said board, and the same shall be pub- 
lished and take effect, and be proven and read in evidence, in like manner as 
ordinances passed by the common council of the city of Auburn ; a record or 
entry made by the said clerk at the time of the first publication of any ordinance, 
or a copy thereof duly certified by him, or the aflSdavit of the printer or 
publisher, shall be presumptive evidence, of the publication thereof, in all courts 
and places. 

§ 14. Whenever the inhabitants of any school district shall, by vote, determine 
to build a school-house, it shall be the duty of the said board of education to 
fix the site of the said school-house, and determine the sum necessary to be 
raised for the purchase of such site and the building of said school-house, and 



366 AUBUEN. 

report the same to the common council, which sum shall in no case exceed the 
sum of three thousand dollars. 

§ 15. It shall be the duty of the common council to levy and raise upon the 
said district the sum so reported, pursuant to the last section, in the same manner 
as the general taxes of the city are levied or raised, except that the same shal' 
be collected on a separate warrant, and when the same shall be collected it shall 
be paid to the city treasurer and deposited to the credit of the board of educa- 
tion ; and no part thereof shall be appropriated by said board otherwise than for 
the purchase and improvement of such site and the erection of such school-house, 
with the appurtenances. 

§ 16. The said board of education shall annually, on or before the first day of 
June, fix and determine, and certify and report to the common council, the 
amount of money which, when added to the money annually apportioned to the 
city of Auburn or to the several school districts comprised therein out of 
the funds belonging to the state, shall be necessary to defray the expenses of all 
the common or district schools in said city, for the ensuing year, for fuel, furniture, 
school apparatus, repairs and insurance of school-house, teachers' wages and 
contingent expenses, and also to defray the expenses of a school for colored 
children, as hereinafter provided, and to pay the compensation of the clerk of 
the board of education and the contingent expenses of such board. The amount 
so certified shall in no case exceed five times the amount which shall have been 
apportioned out of the funds belonging to the state, as aforesaid, for the year next 
preceding. 

§ 17. The common council of -the said city shall annually levy and raise the 
amount of money so certified and reported by the board of education, and the 
said amount so to be raised shall be levied and collected at the same time and in 
the same manner as the other general taxes of the said city are levied and raised, 
and in addition thereto ; but the warrant issued to the collector for the collection 
of. such taxes shall specify what amount of such taxes shall be paid to the 
treasurer for general city purposes, and what part as a fund for the support of 
schools. 

§ 18. All moneys levied and raised for the support of common schools, together 
with the public money received from the state, shall be paid to the treasurer of 
the city of Auburn, and shall by him be kept separate and distinct from the other 
moneys of said city, and shall be known and distinguished as the common school 
fund, and shall be paid out by the treasurer only upon an order drawn upon 
him, and signed by the president and countersigned by the clerk of said board of 
education J and no such order shall be drawn except by virtue of a resolution of 
the board. Such order shall specify for what purpose the amount specified 
therein is to be paid ; and the clerk of such board shall keep an accurate account, 
under the appropriate heads of expenditure, of all orders drawn on the treasury, 
in a check book, to be kept by him for that purpose. 

§ 19. The board of supervisors of Cayuga county shall not have power to 
levy any tax upon the city of Auburn for the support or on account of common 
schools. 

§ 20. The said board of education shall exclusively audit all accounts and 
claims against any school district, or which have accrued on account of any dis- 
trict school in said city ; and the payment of the same, or of such parts thereof as 
shall be allowed by the said board, shall be made directly to such claimants by 
the city treasurer out of the moneys belonging to the common school fund, upon 
the order of said board, as hereinbefore provided ; but the aggregate of the expen- 
ditures and contracts of the said board, during any year, shall not exceed the 
amount of moneys which shall be subject to their order during the then current 
year. 

§ 21. Whenever, from the annual estimate presented to the common council by 
said board of education, it shall appear that the expenses of any school district 
for the ensuing year, exclusive of teachers' wages, will exceed the sum of fifty 
dollars, the common council may, in their discretion, order the amount of such 
excess to be levied and assessed upon and collected from such district, in the 



AUBUEN. SB'S 

manner hereinbefore provided for raising moneys to build a school-house ; and 
such moneys, when so collected, shall be paid to the city treasurer, and be by him 
placed to the credit of the said board of education, and shall by said board be 
expended solely for the benefit of such district. 

§ 22. The said board of education shall have power to establish and cause to 
be kept in said city a school for the instruction of colored children, as 
they shall deem expedient, and the said board shall have and exercise all the 
powers, in relation to such school, of trustees of school districts in towns, as far 
as applicable. 

§ 23. Whenever the said board of education shall determine to establish a school 
for the instruction of colored children, they shall make an estimate of the expense 
of erecting a suitable school-house therefor, and determine the site thereof, and 
report such proceedings to the common council. 

§ 24. The common council shall have power to raise by general tax, in the 
manner hereinbefore provided, and on a separate warrant, or in addition to the 
general city tax, such sum as shall be necessary to purchase such site and build 
such school-house, not exceeding three thousand dollars ; or the said common 
council may refuse to raise such tax. In case the common council shall refuse 
to raise such tax, the said board of education shall have power to provide and 
lease a suitable room or building for the accommodation of such school, but the 
annual expenditure for this purpose shall not exceed the sum of one hundred 
dollars — the same to be paid from the common school fund. 

§ 25. All teachers of common schools in said city shall be employed by the 
city superintendent of common schools and the trustees of the district for which 
such teacher or teachers shall be employed ; but no appointment or employment 
of any such teacher shall be valid beyond the first regular meeting of the board 
of education thereafter, unless such appointment shall be approved by such board ; 
and all contracts made with teachers by said superintendent and any trustee, shall 
be subject to the provisions of this act ; and such contract shall cease to be bind- 
ing on the rejection of such teacher by the board of education. 

§ 26. The said board of education may remov® any teacher for cause, to be 
specified in the minutes of the proceedings of the said board ; and in ease of any 
such removal, any contract with any such teacher shall cease, and another teacher 
shall be employed in the manner provided in the last preceding section. 

§ 27. To the first annual estimate of school expenses, presented by the board of 
education to the common council, the said board shall add the present indebted- 
ness of every school district within said city for any of the causes specified in 
section (16) sixteen of this act, or which may necessarily accrue therefor previous 
to the time of presentation of su£h first estimate ; and such additional amount 
shall be raised in like manner as the other moneys stated in said estimate, and 
shall be paid into and compose a part of the common school fund, and the said 
board shall assume and pay smch indebtedness out of the moneys so received. 

§ 28. The said board of education shall annually publish, in some newspaper in 
said city, a statement of the number of common schools in said city and the num- 
ber of pupils instructed therein, the total amount of moneys received for school 
purposes, with the sources thereof, and the expenditures on account of eaeh 
school, specifying as near as may be the items of such expenditures. 

§ 29. An appeal may be taken to the state superintendent of commoa sclSools 
from any proceeding of the said board of education in the formation or arteraij.!pn 
of any school district, in the same manner and for the same causes as app^al^ 
may be taken from the proceedings of town superintendents of common sclibplp,, 

§ 30. All titles to real estate to be used for school purposes, with the exceptioiij 
of a site for a school-house for colored children, shall be taken in the name of 
the trustee of the district, in which such real estate shall b@ situated, in his: 
official name ; and any real estate now or hereafter owned fey any school district 
may be sold by the trustees of such district, upon a vot^ ©f the inhabitants pf 
said district, and with the approval of the said board of education ; and the avails 
of such real estate shall be paid to the city treasurer, and be by him placed ta 
the credit of the board of education, and by said board appropriated exclusively 
to the benefit of such district. 



368 BROOKLYN. 

§ 31. The treasurer and collector of the city of Auburn shall respectively, with 
their sureties, be liable on their official bonds for any default, delinquency, 
neglect or misconduct in the duties with which they may be respectively charged, 
under and by virtue of this act, in the same manner and with the like eifect as for 
any other official default, delinquency, neglect or misconduct. 

§ 32. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act are hereby repealed. 

By § 12, chap. 207 of 1852, the school of the Cayuga asylum for destitute 
children is to be considered a separate and additional district school of the citj'^ 
of Auburn, subject to the general supervision of the board of education, and enti- 
tled to a distributive share of school monevs. 



BROOKLYN. 
[ Laws of 1850, cliap. 143. ] 

Section 1. The common council of the city of Brooklyn shall, on the first 
Monday of February after this act becomes a law, appoint thirty-three persons, 
residents of said city, one of whom at least shall reside in each school district' 
thereof, who together shall constitute a board of education. It shall then divide 
the said board into three equal classes, each class containing eleven members, 
and shall determine by lot their respective terms of office, so that the first class 
shall serve one year, the second two years, and the third three years. In each 
year thereafter the said common council shall appoint eleven members of said 
board, care being had to preserve the representation of at least one member from 
each school district, whose term of office shall continue tliree years, and, in case a 
vacancy shall at any time occur in said board, tlie said coiincil shall supply the 
same. The persons so appointed shall be reeligible, and shall hold office until 
their successors are appointed and shall have qualified. 

§ 2. The board of education shall have the entire charge and direction of all 
the public schools of said city, and of the school moneys raised for the support 
of the same, and shall possess the powers and be subject to the general duties of 
trustees of common schools in this state, so far as the same are not impaired or 
afiected by this act. It shall annually choose a presiding officer, make its own 
by-laws, keep a journal of its proceedings, define the duties of its officers and 
committees, and prescribe sucli rules and regulations, for instruction and disci- 
pline in said public schools, as are not inconsistent witli the laws of the state ; 
and all the provisions of tlie act relating to resignations and expulsions in the 
common council shall be applicable to the board of education. 

§ 3. The whole city shall be a school district for all purposes of taxation, as 
well for the purchase of school sites and the building and repairing of school- 
houses as for tlie annual support of schools ; birt shall be divided by the board 
of education into as many districts as there are schools, for the purpose of deter- 
mining the limits within Avhich children may attend such schools. 

§ 4. The board of education shall have power to organize and establish schools 
for colored children, and such evening schools as it may from time to time deem 
expedient, and shall adopt the necessary rules for the government of the same. 
It may make use of the public school-houses under its charge for such evening 
schools, and the expenses of such evening schools shall be paid out of the general 
fund, in the same manner as those of the other public schools. No person shall 
be prohibited from attending the evening scliools on account of age. 

§ 5. The board of education shall appoint a city superintendent of common 
schools, who shall, ex-ofiicio, be the secretary of the board. In addition to such 
other duties as may be devolved upon him by the board, in the visitation and 
superintendence of the schools, he shall examine the qualifications of teachers, 
and grant certificates in sucli manner and form as may be prescribed by the State 
Suijerintendent ; which shall not be in force longer than a year, and may at any 



BROOKLYN. 36-9 

time be revoked by the board of education. He shall also make such annual and 
other reports of the condition of the schools, and of other matters, as may be 
required by law or by the said board. He shall be paid a salary out of the gene- 
ral fund, to be fixed by the board, and may be removed from office by the vote 
of a majority of all the members of the board of education. 

§ 6. The treasurer of the city shall be, ex-officio, the treasurer of the board of 
education, and shall receive to the credit of said board, from the county treasurer, 
the amount of school money to which the city is entitled from the state appro- 
priation, together with such amount as is raised by the board of supervisors to 
e ititle the city to its distributive share of the school moneys of the state, and 
from the city collector the money raised by tax for the support of schools, and 
he shall disburse the same only by the order and upon the warrant of the board of 
education, drawn in favor of the person entitled to payment, signed by the pre- 
siding officer of the board and countersigned by its secretary. 

§ 7. The treasurer shall give such bonds for the faithful performance of his 
duty as the common council may require ; and shall report monthly to the board 
of education his receipts and expenditures, with the balance remaining on hand 
to the credit of the board, and such other information in relation thereto as the 
board of education may, from time to time, require. 

§ 8. [Repealed by section 13, title 11, chapter 384 of 1854,] 
§ 9. The board of education shall present, annually, on or before the first 
Monday in February, to the common council, an estimate of the money required 
to be raised in the ensuing year for the support of the schools and for the pur- 
chase of school sites, as well as for the building and rei>airing of school-houses ; 
and the common council shall determine what sums sliall be raised for such pur- 
poses, respectively, in addition to the amount already required by law, in order 
to entitle the city to its distributive share of the state school money. 

§ 10. The amount of money to be raised for the support of schools in any one 
year, exclusive of the suras required to purchase sites and to build and repair 
school-houses, as well as to entitle the city to its share of the state school money, 
shall not be less than one dollar and twenty-five cents nor more than one dollar 
and seventy-five cents for each child between the ages of five and sixteen years 
within the city — as ascertained by the previous census, herein required to be 
taken on the thirty-first day of December in ,each year, 

§ 11. The several amounts so determined by the common council to be raised, 
as aforesaid, shall be levied upon all the taxable property of the citj", in the same 
manner and at the same time as the taxes for city purposes, and shall be stated 
and sent to the board of county supervisors to be levied and collected accordingly. 
§ 12. The board of supervisors, in their warrant to the collector, shall direct 
him to pay the amount so to be collected to the treasurer of the city, to the credit 
of the board of education, out of the first moneys collected. 

§ 13. It shall be the duty of the first board of city assessoi's elected after this 
law shall take eiFect to estimate the value of the school property of each school 
district, as heretofore existing, and certify the same to the board of supervisors. 
The supervisors shall thereupon proceed to equalize the said value by assessing 
the aggregate amount thereof upon the whole city, and crediting each school 
district, on account of its general tax., witli the value of its separate school pro- 
perty, and its special school taxes already laid and in progress of collection. 

§ 14. The board of education shall determine the number and location of 
schools ; but no expenditures for the purchase of ground or the erection of school- 
houses shall hereafter be made, unless the same shall have been approved by the 
common council. Such approval shall be deemed to have been given when the 
tax therefor shall be approved by the common council and levied by the super- 
visors ; (>r it may be specially given, upon the application of the board of edu- 
cation to make such expenditure, in anticipation of a tax to be levied in the 
ensuing year. 

§ 15. The title of all the property now or hereafter to be required for school 
purposes shall be vested in the board of education. 

§ 16. The board of education shall determine whether any and what portion 
of the state appropriation and the county tax, designated as library money, 
[Code.] 47 



370 BROOKLYN. 

shall be applied to the purchase of school libraries and apparatus, and the dispo- 
sition thereof: and the residue of said money shall be applied to the payment of 
teachers' wages or for the purchase of school books, and to no other purpose. 

§ 17. The money raised for the purchase of school sites, and the building, 
repairing and furnishing of school-houses, shall be known as the " sjiecial school 
fund," and all other moneys as the " general school fund ;'" and it shall the duty 
of the board of education to keep accurate accounts of its recepts and expendi- 
tures, distinguishing between those of a general and those of a special character; 
and it shall not be lawful to expend any portion of the moneys raised for the use 
of one of said funds for the purposes of the other of said funds, but the expen- 
ditures shall be made in conformity with the appropriations under which the 
funds were levied and collected. 

§ 18. The board of education shall make returns annually to the common 
council of its receipts and expenditures, specifying those on account of the 
general and special funds, respectively, with such other details as the common 
council may from time to time require. 

§ 19. No school in said city shall be entitled to any portion of the school moneys, 
in which the religious sectarian doctrine or tenets of any particular christian or 
other religious sect shall be taught or inculcated, or which shall refuse or pro- 
hibit visits or examination by the city superintendents or members of the board 
of education of said city; provided that this section shall not be deemed to 
prohibit the use of the holy scriptures without note or comment. 



[Laws of 1851, chap. 229.] 

§ 15. The amount of money to be raised in any one year for the support of 
common schools in the city of Brooklyn, exclusive of the sums required to pur- 
chase sites, to build and repair school-houses, and to entitle the city to its share 
of the state school money, shall be such sum as the said common council may 
deem necessary therefor, not to exceed the amount now allowed by law. 

By chap. 384 of 1854, the cities of Brooklyn and Williamsburgh and the lown 
of Bushwick were consolidated into one municipal government. Section 13, 
title 11 of that act is as follows : 

§ 13. There shall be a board of education, and all the provisions of law relating 
to the board of education of the present city of Brooklyn shall apply thereto, 
except that the board hereby authorized shall be constituted of the members of 
the said present board, and such additional members as may be appointed by the 
common council for the portion of the city embraced in the present city of Wil- 
liamsburgh and town of Bushwick, and the said common council is hereby 
authorized and required to appoint and classify such additional members, having 
reference therein to the proportional increase of inhabitants by the additional ter- 
ritory ; and the school property of the cities of Brooklyn and Williamsburgh and 
'town of Bushwick, and the several districts thereof, shall be valued by the first 
board of assessors elected after this act shall take effect, and the board of super- 
visors of the county shall proceed to equalize the said value, by assessing the 
aggregate amount thereof upon the whole city, and crediting each school district 
(the city of Brooklyn to be considered as one district), on account of its general 
tax, with the value of its separate school property, and any special school taxes 
already laid and in process of collection. The eighth and twentieth sections of 
the act entitled to reorganize and regulate the common schools and board t>{ 
education of the city of Brooklyn, passed April 4, 1850, is hereby repealed. 



BUFFALO. 371 



BUFFALO. 

Title 5, chap. 230 of 1853, of the assessment and collection of taxes in the city 
of Buffalo, requires the common council, by a vote of two-thirds of the members 
elected, to fix the amount of taxes to be collected for various purposes, and to 
make a statement thereof to be entered in their minutes. In respect to such 
amount and statement, it enacts: 

§ 6. In such amount shall be included the sums required for the support of the 
free schools of the city for twelve months, and to pay such principal and interest 
of such portion of the funded debt of the city as shall be due or fall due within 
eighteen months after the said first day of April, and is not otherwise provided 
for ; the amount determined upon shall be raised as a gross tax on one assessment. 



[ Laws of 1863, chap. 2S0.] 

TITLE VI. OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS, 

§ 1. The common council shall possess all the rights, powers and authority, 
and shall perform all the duties, in and for the city^ of commissioners of common 
schools. ? 

§ 2. The clerk of the city shall be the clerk of the common council, when 
acting as commissioners of common schools, and shall perform the duties required 
of the town clerks of the several towns in the state as clerks of the commissioners 
of common schools of such towns, and be subject to the same penalties for the 
neglect thereof. 

§ 3. In all appropriations of public money for school or other purposes the 
city shall be regarded as a town in the county of Erie, and shall be entitled to 
copies of laws in the same manner as other towns in said county, and all such 
moneys and books shall be paid and delivered to the common council. 

§ 4. The common council may expend such portion as they may deem proper 
of any library moneys hereafter received from the state in binding and riepairing 
the books in the school libraries, in purchasing maps and other apparatus for the 
schools, and in supplying indigent scholars in the schools under their charge with 
necessary common school books and other implements of learning. 

§ 5. All the public schools organized in the city of Buffalo shall be free to all 
white children, over the age of five and under the age of eighteen years, residing 
within their respective districts. 

§ 6. All moneys raised fer school purposes shall constitute a separate fund, to 
be called the school fund ; a separate account thereof shall be kept by the proper 
oflScers of the city, and the monej's shall not be appropriated to any other purpose. 

§ 7. The common council shall provide and maintain one or more free schools 
in the city for the colored children thereof, and may purchase lands, and erect 
thereon, furnish and maintain all buildings necessary for such schools ; and shall 
from time to time raise all money necessary for these purposes by general tax. 

§ 8. The common council may, whenever they shall deem it expedient, 
establish, maintain and regulate a central school, in which shall be taught the 
higher branches of English education authorized by the common school laws of 
this state, and buy such laud and erect such buildings thereon as may be neces- 
sary for the purpose, and raise the necessary money as a part of the general city 
tax. 

§ 9. The common council shall have power, and it shall be their duty, whenever 
it may be necessary : 

1st. To purchase or lease, in any portion of said city, land for school-houses, 
and to fence and improve the same ; 

2d. To build on such lands, or any lot owned by any district in said city, such 
buildings as shall to them appear suitable ; 



372 BUFFALO. 

3d. To complete, improve, enlarge or repair any school-house, from time to 
time to supply it with fuel and such school apparatus, books, furniture and 
appendages as may be necessary, and to prescribe the studies to be pursued 
therein ; 

4th. To make such ordinances as they may deem necessary for the prosperity, 
good order and government of the schools, and the security and preservation of 
the school-houses and other property belonging to the school department of the 
city, and to prescribe the duties and powers of the superintendent of schools and 
school examiners, in all cases not provided for in this act ; 

5th. To divide the schools in said city into primary and higher departments, 
or otherwise, to prescribe regulations for the transfer of scholars from one depart- 
ment to another, and to direct the superintendent to provide suitable and suffi- 
cient instructors for each department ; 

6th. To order, from time to time, a tax to be levied upon the taxable property 
of any district, sufficient to pay all such sums as they may deem necessary to be 
expended in such district for the purchase of or payment for land therein, and 
the building and furnishing of school-houses and their appurtenances ; 

7th. To appoint, from time to time, a board of examiners, to consist of three per- 
sons, whose duty it shall be, at least once in each school term, to visit and examine 
all the departments of the several public schools, and to report to the common 
council, at the close of each term, their condition and progress. Such examiners 
shall be paid by the city not exceeding two dollars for each day actually spent 
by them in such examinations, not exceeding fifty days each in any^,one year. 

§ 10. Whenever the common council shall hereafter order a lot to be purchased 
and a school-house to be built thereon, except for the purpose of a central school, 
they shall describe the district upon which the expenses of the purchase of such 
lot and the building of such house shall be assessed, and the expenses of such lot 
and building shall be assessed by the board of assessors, in the same manner as 
other assessments are made, upon the taxable property of that district only, 
except as instituted in the next session. 

§ il. When such new district shall be composed, in whole or in part, of one or 
more previously existing districts, in which there shall be one or more public 
school-houses, the assessors, in making the assessment for such new lot and build- 
ing, shall charge and assess upon the remaining portions of sach districts, respec- 
tively, such sums as to them shall appear just, having regard to the actual value 
of such lots and buildings, as well as to the sums paid therefor by the property 
included in such new district, and the balance shall be assessed upon the taxable 
property in such new district. But all such sums shall be included in one assess- 
ment roll, and shall be collected in the same manner as other assessments. [As 
amended by § 18, thap. 99 of 1856.] 

§ 12. The superintendent of common schools of the city shall be the executive 
officer of the common council, to carry into effect all the provisions of this act, 
and the ordinances and orders of the council in respect to conmion schools ; and 
the common council may assign to the said superintendent the performance of any 
duty repaired of them in respect to the common schools of said city. He shali, 
in respect to the common schools of the city, possess all the powers and authority, 
and be subject to the duties and obligations of the inspectors of common schools 
of the different ^towns of this state. He shall also have power, and it shall be 
his duty : 

1. To have the care and custody and provide for the safe keeping of .^public 
school-houses in said city ; 

2. To contract with and employ all teachers of the several public schools 
therein, under the direction of the common council ; 

3. To contract for and superintend the building, enlarging, improving, furnish- 
ing and repairing of all school-houses ordered by the common council, and all 
repairs anu ;...^rovements around the same ; 

4. In cases where no other provision is made by this act, to supply the place 
and perform the several duties in respect to the several school districts in said city 



C AMILLUS — Cx\NAND AIGUA — C ASTLETON. 3 7 3 

required of the trustees of the several school districts in this state by the general 
statutes relating to common schools ; 

5. To perform such other duties as may be from time to time imposed upon 
him by the common council. 

§ 13. The common council shall annually publish a statement of the number of 
public schools in the said city, the number of pupils instructed therein the year 
preceding, the several branches of education pursued by them, and the receipts 
and expenditures of each school, specifying the sources of such receipts and the 
objects of such expenditures. 

[Laws 0/1856, chap. 123.] 

§ 30. The schools established and maintained by the Buffalo Juvenile Asylum 
shall participate in the distribution of the common school fund, in the same man- 
ner and degree as the common schools of the city of Buffalo. 



DISTRICT No. 1— CAMILLUS AND GEDDES. 

[Laws 0/1852, chap. 249.] 

Section 1. The leyal voters in joint school district number one, formed from 
parts of the towns of Camillus and Geddcs, in the county of Onondaga, are hereby 
authorized, from time to time, at any meeting of said school district, to empower, 
by resolution, the trustees of said district to keep the accounts of the wages 
of the teacher of the highest department of the principal school in said district 
separate from the accounts of the wages of the other teachers in said district, 
and to apply a just proportion of the public money to the payment of such 
teacher's wages, and to make out a separate rate bill for the collection of the 
remainder of such teacher's wages from the scholars that were instructed by the 
principal teacher, which rate bill shall be collectable in all respects as other rate 
bills are collected. 



CANANDAIGUA. 

Chap. 291, Laws of 1852, authorizes the inhabitants of the village of Canan- 
daigua to vote and raise by tax the sum of S1500, for the purpose of building a 
school-house to be used for the education of colored children exclusively. They 
are also authorized to raise each year, by tax, a sufficient sum to pay for teacher's 
wages, fuel, library and necessary expenses of said school. For the purpose of 
managing it, the trustees of the village are vested with the powers of trustees of 
a school district, and they are required to keep it open with a competent teacher 
at least six months in each year. 



DISTRICT No. 1 — C ASTLETON AND SOUTHFIELD. 
[ Laws of 1855, chap. 280. ] 

Section 1. School district number one, in the towns of Castleton and South- 
field, in the county of Richmond, shall form a permanent school district, and 
shall not be subject to alteration by the town superintendent of common schools 
for the towns in which said district is situated. 

g 2. The said district shall be under the direction of a board, to be styled " The 
Board of Education," which board shall consist of three members, two of whom 
shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. James 0. Ludlow, 



374 CASTLETON. 

James Anketel and Theodore Frean shall compose the first board of education, 
and hold their office from one to three years ; that is to say, one shall go out of 
office in each year, and in the order in which their names stand recorded in this 
section. 

§ 3. At the annual meeting of said district, in each year, there shall be elected 
for three years one member of said board of education, who shall be a resident 
and taxable inhabitant of said district; said election, and all other elections pro- 
vided for by this act, shall be held by three inspectors, to be appointed by said 
meeting or the moderator thereof, as the people assembled in annual meeting 
may determine ; said election shall be by ballot, and shall be conducted in all 
respects and in the same manner as is now provided by law for the election of 
trustees in school districts in this state. 

§ 4. The said board of education may make all neces.sary by-laws for their 
government ; they shall have the entire control and management of all the com- 
mon schools within said district, and all the property belonging to the same, and 
they shall have and possess, within said district, all the rights, powers and 
authority of town superintendent of common schools, and they shall provide for 
keeping a school in said district at least eight months in each year, and as much 
longer as may be deemed practicable ; they may appoint a collector, with all the 
powers and duties of a district collector, or may employ the town collector of 
either of said towns for that purpose, and such collector shall collect and pay 
over the school moneys assessed upon said district to the said board of education, 
in the same manner and under the same conditions as is imposed by the laws of 
the town of which he is such collector. They shall require at least one of the 
members of said board to visit each school in said district at least once in each 
week, to render such assistance to the teacher and advice to the pupils as may be 
necessary, and to see that the regulations are rigidly adhered to. 

§ 5. The said board of education are hereby authorized and directed to levy 
and collect by tax, in each year, upon all the taxable property and inhabitants in 
said district, such sum as may be necessary, not exceeding in amount two-fifths 
of one per cent on the value of such taxable property, as the same shall be 
assessed by the assessors of the said towns of Castleton and Southfield, and shall 
be ascertained from the last assessment rolls of said towns ; and the said board 
shall add to their warrant, for collection of such taxes, such amount as they may 
deem proper for fees for collection, not exceeding five per cent on the amount. 

§ 6. The said tax shall be laid and collected between the first day of February 
and November, in each year. [ As amended by chap. 74 of 1856. ] 

§ 7. The town superintendents of common schools of the towns of Castleton 
and Southfield shall pay over to the board of education all the public moneys to 
which said district number one shall be entitled for school purposes. 

§ 8. The said board of education shall call an annual district meeting, at such 
time in the year as they shall think proper, and submit thereto a full report, in 
■writing, of their doings as such board, and shall state therein the number and 
condition of the schools in said district under their charge, and the number of the 
scholars attending the same, the studies pursued, the amount of moneys received 
from the state, as well as the amount raised in the district for school purposes, 
and the expenditure of the same, and generally all the particulars relating to the 
schools in said district, which report, if said board think proper, may be pub- 
lished in pamphlet form, or in some newspaper published in the county. 

§ 9. The board of education shall have entire control of the district library ; 
they may employ a librarian, make such additions to the library and such regu- 
lations in relation thereto as they may deem necessary or proper. 

§ 10. A school for colored children may be organized and be supported as the 
other schools in said district under this act. 

§ 11. The said board of education may call special meetings of said district 
whenever they may deem it necessary ; and whenever a special meeting shall be 
called, notices of it shall be posted up in five public places in said district, at 
least one week previous to said meeting, and no business shall be transacted 
at such meeting except that stated in the notice calling the same. 



CASTLETON. 375 

§ 12. [ Temporary, authorizing certain taxes for tlie completion of school- 
houses. See this section as amended by ^ 2, chap. 74 of 1856. ] 

§ 13. All laws and parts of laws inconsistent with this act are hereby repealed, 
so far as they relate to district number one, in the towns of Castleton and South- 
field, in the county of Richmond. 

§ 14. All the rights, powers and duties conferred in the trustees of said school 
district, by the annual meetings held therein in the years one thousand eight 
hundred and fiftyrone and one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, are hereby 
transferred to said board of education, who are hereby authorized and empowered 
to do all the acts that the said trustees were required to do by the proceedings 
of said annual meetings. 

[Laws of 1856, chap. 74.] 

* * * The said board of education are hereby empowered and directed to 
keep the said school-houses belonging to the said district, together with the 
furniture, library and scientific apparatus, insured in such sum as they may 
deem to be the true value thereof, and to levy and collect the costs and expense 
of the same, as hereinbefore provided. 

5. The said board of education are hereby authorized and empowered to pur- 
chase a suitable lot of ground, as a site upon which to erect a school-house foi' 
colored children, on the most reasonable terms which they can, and to pay for 
the same out of the moneys now in their hands for that purpose ; and if the same 
shall not be sufficient to pay for said lot and erect the house thereon, the said 
board of education are hereby authorized, empowered and directed to levy and 
collect, by a tax upon all the taxable property and inhabitants in said district, 
such sum, not exceeding three hundred dollars, as may be necessary and suffi- 
cient to purchase said lot and erect said house. 

DISTRICTS Nos. 2, 3, 5 and 7, IN CASTLETON. 
[ Laws of 1855, chap. 510. ] 

Section 1. The trustees of each of the school districts, two, three, five and 
seven, in the town of Castleton, in the county of Richmond, shall annually, at. 
least three weeks before their annual meetings or three weeks before a special 
meeting which may be called for that purpose, in their respective districts, prepare 
an estimate of the amount which they shall deem necessary to pay the debts of 
their districts and for the support of common schools therein for the ensuing year, 
exclusive of the money which they may be entitled to receive from the town 
superintendent, and including the sum required for building, for the purchase of 
necessary furniture, apparatus and books, and for contingent expenses, and shall 
cause notice thereof to be posted for two weeks previous to said meeting, in at 
least five of the most public places in the district. And they shall present such 
estimate at such meeting, when the inhabitants so assembled shall vote thereon 
for each item separately, and the same, or so much thereof as shall be approved 
by a majority of such inhabitants, shall be levied and raised by tax on such 
district, as now prescribed by la^v for raising school district taxes. 

§• 2. When the trustees shall have completed any tax list, they shall annex to 
such tax list a warrant, directed to the collector of the district, for the collection 
of the sums of money in such list mentioned, returnable in thirty days, and take 
from such collector approved security for the performance of his duty. Such 
warrant may be renewed from time to time, as now provided by law for the 
collection of district taxes. The money so collected shall be paid to said trustees, 
and by them appropriated to the purpose for which the same was voted, unless 
otherwise directed by a vote of the inhabitants at their annual district meeting 
or a special meeting called for the purpose. 

§ 3. The tax hereby imposed shall be a lien upon the lands taxed, to be enforced 
and collected by sale, in the manner that county taxes are collected, upon a 
return to be made by said collector to the treasurer of the county of all unpaid 
taxes in said district. 



3*76 CHERRY VALLEY— CLYDE HIGH SCHOOL 

DISTRICT No. 3, IN CHERRY VALLEY. 
[Laws 0/1853, chap. 171. J 

§ 1. School district number three, in the town of Cherry Valley, in Otseo;o 
county, shall be free to all children between the ages of four and twenty-one 
years residing in said district. 

§ 2. The trustees of said district shall have the power, and it shall be their 
duty, to raise from time to time by tax, to be levied equally upon all the real and 
personal property in said school districts which shall be liable for ordinary school 
district taxes, such sum or sums of money, not exceeding three hundred dollars 
in any one year, as the trustees of said district may deem necessary for the pay- 
ment of teachers' wages, after applying all other moneys belonging to said district 
which may be applicable to the payment of the wages of teachers. 



CLYDE HIGH SCHOOL. 
[ Laws of 1834, chap. 175, as amended iy chap. 268, Laws of 1842. ] 

Section 1. School district number seventeen, in the town of Galen, in the county 
of Wayne, shall form a permanent school district, not subject to alteration by the 
town superintendent of common schools of the said town of Galen, and shall 
hereafter be known by the name of " The Clyde High School." 

§ 2. The trustees of the Clyde High School shall be seven in number ; and 
the first trustees shall be George Burrell, John Condit, Sylvester Clark, Cyrus 
Smith, Isaac Lewis, William S. Stow and Calvin D. Tompkins ; and shall hold 
their offices until the first annual meeting of said permanent school district, and 
until others are chosen. 

§ 3. Said trustees are anthorized to receive gifts, grants and donations towards 
defraying the expenses of purchasing a site and building a suitable school-house 
for said high school. 

§ 4. Said trustees, on receiving the sum of one thousand dollars, or having the 
said sum secured to be paid to them by subscription or otherwise, shall have power 
to levy and cause to be raised by tax, upon the taxable inhabitants of said perma- 
nent school district, a like sum of one thousand dollars ; but no such tax shall be 
levied until said trustees shall have called a special meeting of the taxable inhabi- 
tants of said permanent school district, in manner now provided by law for 
calling special school district meetings. 

§ 5. Said trustees shall report in writing to said meeting the amount of 
moneys received by them, the sum or sums secured to be paid to them, and the 
manner in which it is secured ; and if the sum of one thousand dollars appears to 
be paid or is secured to be paid to said trustees, said meeting shall proceed to 
elect a clerk and collector for said high school, who shall hold their offices until 
the first annual meeting of said permanent school district, and until others are 
chosen. 

§ 6. The trustees hereby appointed, and clerk and collector hereby directed to 
be chosen, shall be subject to the same penalties, and shall have the same powers 
and perform the same duties, as like officers directed to be chosen by chapter 
fifteen, title second and article fifth of the Revised Statutes, and all subsequent 
elections shall be held under that act. 

§ 7. The trustees of said high school shall select a suitable site in the village 
of Clyde for the erection of their school-house, and shall contract for and pur- 
cliase the same, and thereon erect a school-house of sufficient size to accommo- 
date such children as may be required to be educated in said permanent school 
district, and shall furnish the necessary furniture and fixtures for the same. 



COHOES. 811 

§ 8. School districts fourteen and seventeen, or either of them, may sell their 
district property, and pay the amount of money arising from such sale or sales to 
the trustees of the Clyde High School. 

§ 9. Said trustees on receiving such moneys, shall, if required by either dis- 
trict, deduct the amount from that part of the tax hereby directed to be imposed 
on the taxable inhabitants of the individual district paying the same. 

§ 10. The school money, which school districts number fourteen and seventeen 
shall from time to time be entitled to receive from the commissioners of common 
schools, in the town of Galen, shall be paid to the trustees of the Clyde High 
School, who shall be required to report to said commissioners in the same man- 
ner as other school districts are by law required to report. 

§ 11. The trustees receiving such moneys shall give their receipt for the same, 
and shall apply the money received exclusively to the payment of the teachers 
employed by them ; and it may be applied in such manner as to render the tuition 
of such poor children in said district as they may deem proper, gratuitous. 

§ 12. It shall be the duty of the trustees of the said high school to make an 
annual report, to the superintendent of common schools, of the state and condition 
of the said school. 

§ 13. The trustees shall have the general superintendence of all schools taught 
in said school-house, and shall employ as many teachers and assistants as they 
shall deem necessary, and shall direct the course of instruction, and regulate all 
the internal concerns of said school. [§ 2, act of 1842.] The trustees of said 
Clyde High School may from time to time rent or lease, for scholastic purposes, 
such ropms or apartment in their school-house as in their judgment may not be 
required for the use of s(Jhools therein established by them. 



COHOES. 
[Laws of 1855, chap. 352.] 

§ 50. The common schools in said village shall be free to all children, between 
the ages of four and twenty-one years, residing therein. 

§ 51. There shall be erected in each ward one or more school-houses belonging 
to said village. 

§ 52. The title of the school-houses, lots, furniture, books, libraries and 
apparatus, and all other school property which has been heretofore or may be 
hereafter acquired, either as school districts or by the village and within the 
bounds thereof, shall be vested in the village of Cohoes, and while the same are 
used for school purposes they shall not be levied upon or sold by virtue of any 
warrant or execution, nor be subject to taxation ; and the said village may take, 
hold and dispose of, in its corporate capacity, any real or personal property 
transferred to it by gift, grant, bequest or devise for the use of the common 
schools in said village. 

§ 53. The trustees of the village may, upon the recommdation of the board of 
education, as hereinafter mentioned, sell any of the school -houses, lots or sites, 
or any other school property now or hereafter belonging to said village, provided 
that the proceeds of such sale or sales shall be paid to the treasurer of the village 
and remain in his hands as a fund for the erection of school-houses, unless the 
same shall have been otherwise appropriated by a vote of the inhabitants entitled 
to vote for raising taxes in said village. 

§ 54. The school commissioners shall constitute and be styled the " Board of 
Education of the village of Cohoes," which shall be a corporate body in relation 
to all the powers and duties conferred upon them by this act. 

§ 55. The members of the board of education shall not receive any compensa- 
tion for their services, except, that the chairman thereof may be entitled to receive 
at and after the rate of one dollar and fifty cents per day for the time he is 
actually employed (to be verified by his affidavit), but in no case shall the com- 
pensation so paid exceed the sum of one hundred and fifty dollars per annum. 

[Code.] 48 



3^8 COIIOES. 

§ 56. Any member of the board of education in said village may be removed 
from office, for otHcial misconduct or neglect of duty, by the trustees of said 
village ; but a written copy of the charges against said trustee shall be served 
upon him, and he shall be allowed an opportunity to refute such charge of 
misconduct or neglect of duty before removed. 

§ 57. The chairman of the board of education shall see that the school-houses, 
buildings, or any other school property belonging to said village, is not uni;ecessa- 
rily injured or destroyed. He shall visit each of the schools in said village at 
least once in three months, and shall perform such other duties as may be required 
of him by said board of education; or otherwise he shall, in connection with 
any three or more members of the board of education, or, if he may deem it 
advisable, request the attendance of any one or more of the inhabitants of said 
village whom he may think competent to assist him for that purpose, examine 
and license all school teachers in said village. 

§ 58. The said board of education shall be trustees of the school library or 
libraries in said village; and all the provisions of law, which now are or may 
hereafter be enacted relative to school district libraries, shall apply to said board 
of education. 

§ 59. The clerk of the village shall be clerk of the board of education, and 
librarian; and, as such librarian, shall perform all the duties which are or may 
be required by the general school laws. As clerk of the board of education, he 
shall keep a record of the proceedings of the board, and perform such other 
duties as the board may prescribe; and the said record, or a transcript thereof, 
certified by the president and clerk, shall be received in all courts as presumptive 
evidence of the facts therein set forth ; and such records, and all the books, 
accounts, vouchers and papers of said board shall at all times be subject to the 
inspection of the trustees of the village or any committee thereof. The trustees 
may prescribe the compensation for such services, not exceeding one hundred 
and fifty dollars. 

§ 60. Tlie said board of education may allow the children of persons not 
resident within said village to attend any of the schools therein under their custody 
or control, upon such terms as they shall prescribe in their by-laws or resolutions 
for the government and management of said schools. 

§ 61. The said board shall have the power, and it shall he their duty : 

1. To organize and establish in said village so many and such schools as they 
shall deem requisite and expedient, and to alter and discontinue the same, in their 
discretion ; 

2 To hire school-houses and rooms for the purposes of said school, when 
necessary ; 

3. To alter, repair and improve school-houses belonging to the village, and 
their appurtenances ; 

4. To purchase books for indigent pupils, and to purchase and repair furniture, 
school apparatus and other necessary articles, including libraries ; 

5. To have the custody, control and safe keeping (except as herein otherwise 
provided) of the school-house buildings, lots or any other school property 
belonging to said village of Cohoes, and exercise the powers and discharge the 
duties, in respect to said schools, both of trustees of school districts and of 
town superintendent of common schools ; 

6. To contract with and employ all teachers in said schools, and at their plea- 
sure to remove them ; 

7. To pay the wages of such teachers out of the public money appropriated and 
provided by law for that purpose, so far as the same shall be sufiicient, and to 
pay the balance of such wages from the money authorized to be raised for that 
purpose by section 64 of this act ; 

8. To defray the necessary contingent expenses of the board, including the 
compensation of the chairman of the board, and the clerk of the village for his 
services as clerk of the board of education and librarian, under the provisions of 
this act ; but the amount of such expenses and compensation shall be first audited 
and allowed by the trustees of said village; 



COHOES. 379 

9. To have in all respects, unless otherwise provided in this act, the superin- 
tendence, supervision and management of the schools in said village, and from 
time to time may adopt, alter, modify and repeal all rules and regulations for 
their organization, government and instiuction, as they may deem expedient for 
the reception of pupils, and their transfer from one school to another, and gene- 
rally for the promotion of good order in said schools ; 

10. To report to the village trustees, whenever, in their opinion, it may he 
advisable to sell any school-houses, lots or sites, or other school property belong- 
ing to the village ; 

11. To cause an enumeration of all the children within said village, between 
the ages of four and twenty-one years, to be made between the first and fifteenth 
day of January in each year ; and the chairman shall report the number of such 
children, at the time and in the manner required by law of town superintendents 
of schools ; 

12. To make and transmit, between the first days of July and August in each 
year, to the county clerk of Albany county, a like report in all respects, as near 
as practicable, as is by law required by town superintendents of schools, and to 
furnish such information, relating to the schools in said village, as may from time 
to time be required by the trustees thereof or by the State Superintendent of 
Public Instruction; 

§ 62. It shall be the duty of the board of education, within thirty days, and 
not less than fifteen days, before the annual election in each year, to make a 
report to the village trustees, showing : 

1. The number of scholars between the ages of four and twenty-one years, 
residing in said village, who have attended the free schools therein during the 
preceding year, and the number attending each school, also the number under 
four years of age attending said schools ; 

2. The number of scholars not residing in said village, but have attended the 
common schools therein during the same time ; 

3. The amount of public moneys received by the village treasurer applicable 
to teachers' wages, and the amount applicable to school libraries ; 

4. The amount of moneys raised by the village trustees under section sixty-four 
of this act, and the portions thereof appropriated to the respective funds : 

5. The moneys received from the sale of village property ; 

6. All other sums received by the treasurer and appropriated to the purposes 
of the common schools ; 

7. The manner and purposes for which such sums of money shall have been 
expended, specifying the amount paid under each head of expenditure ; 

8. An estimate of all sums necessary and deemed desirable by said board to 
be raised, for all school purposes for the then present year, under the provisions 
of this act, except the amount to be raised for the contingent fund, which estimate 
shall state the specific sum necessary to be raised for each item therein. 

§ 63. The village trustees shall cause the report and estimate, required by the 
last preceding section, to be published in one or more of the papers published in 
said village for two weeks next preceding the annual election. 

§ 64. The trustees of said village shall have the power, and it shall be their 
duty, to raise from time to time by tax, to be levied equally upon all the real and 
personal property in said village which shall be liable for the ordinary village 
taxes, such sum or sums of money as the board of education shall deem necessary 
for any or all of the following purposes : 

1. To build, purchase or lease school-houses, or purchase, lease and improve 
sites therefor ; but no greater sum than fifteen hundred dollars shall be appropri- 
ated for that object in any one year ; 

2. To enlarge, alter, improve and repair school-houses and their out-houses 
and appurtenances ; but no greater sum than fifty dollars shall be appropriated 
for that object in any one year for any one school-house; 

3. To raise a sum, which shall not exceed fifty dollars in any one year, to pur- 
chase and repair school apparatus, books and furniture, including the school 
library or libraries in said village; 



380 COHOES. 

4. To procure fuel and to purchase stoves and heaters and repair the same ; 

5. To pay the wages of teachers which may be due after the application of the 
public school moneys, and all other moneys received by said board whicli may 
by law be appropriated and provided for that purpose ; but in no case shall the 
moneys so raised for the payment of teachers' wages be less than fifty-five cents 
nor over one dollar per year for each child in said village between the age of four 
and twenty-one years. 

§ 65. The trustees of said village shall have the power, and it shall be their 
duty, from time to time, and at the same time the other village taxes are levied 
and collected, to levy and raise a tax of fifty cents from each male inhabitant of 
the age of twenty-one years residing in said village, and the money so raised 
shall be paid to the treasurer of the village as a contingent fund for the use of the 
common or free schools of said village. 

§ 66. Whenever any money is raised for school purposes under this act, for 
any specific fund, it shall not be applied to any other fund or purpose whatever, 
except by a vote of the electors entitled to vote for raising such taxes under the 
provisions of this act. 

§ 67. The estimate of the sums, recommended by the board of education as 
necessary to be raised for all school purposes mentioned in this act, shall be sub- 
mitted at the next annual village meeting by the village trustees, and passed upon, 
item to item, by the voters then present entitled to vote for raising taxes for school 
purposes, and adopted or rejected wholly or in part ; the vote sliall be taken by 
ayes and nays, or by ballot, if ordered by a majority of the votei's entitled to vote 
for such taxes. All persons who have paid the school tax, in section sixty-five 
mentioned, shall have the privilege of voting for raising money for school 
purposes. 

8 68. [ Repealed by chap. 180 of 1856, Nos. 30 and 31, ante. ] 

§ 60. All moneys raised by virtue of this act, or received by the said village 
for or on account of common schools, shall be deposited with the treasurer of 
said village, to the credit of the respective funds under the control of said board 
of education, as provided by law, and shall be drawn out in pursuance of a reso- 
lution of the said board, by drafts drawn by the chairman, and countersigned by 
the clerk of said board, payable to the order of the person or persons entitled to 
receive such moneys ; and all accounts so paid shall be accompanied by the affi- 
davit of the owner thereof, setting forth that the claims are reasonable, and that 
all the articles named were furnished by the direction of the legally appointed 
ofiicers. 

§ 70. The said board of education, in all their expenditures and contracts, shall 
have reference to the amount of moneys which shall be subject to their order for 
any specific object during the then current year, and not to exceed the amount so 
provided. 

§ 71. The board of trustees of said village shall have the power to pass such 
ordinances and regulations as the said board of education may report as necessary 
and proper for the protection, safe keeping, care and preservation of the school- 
houses, lots, sites, appurtenances and appendages, libraries and all other school 
property belonging to or connected with the schools of said village, and to impose 
proper penalties for the violation thereof, subject to the subscriptions and limita- 
tions contained in this act ; and all such penalties shall be collected in the same 
manner that the penalties for the violation of the village ordinances are by law 
collected, and when collected shall be paid to the treasurer of the village, and 
by him placed to the credit of the contingent fund. 



EASTCHESTER. 381 

DISTRICT No. 4 — EASTCHESTER, WESTCHESTER COUNTY, 
f Laws of 1853, cha/p. 334. ] 

Section 1. School district number four, in the town of Eastchester, shall form 
a permanent school district, and shall not be subject to alteration, by the town 
superintendent of common schools of said town. 

§ 2. The said district shall be under the direction of a board, to be styled " The 
Board of Education of school district number four, in the town of Eastchester," 
which shall be a coi-porate body, in relation to all the powers and duties conferred 
upon them by this act ; said board to consist of nine members, five of whom shall 
constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. 

§ 3. The trustees of said district shall, within thirty days after the passage of 
this act, call a special meeting of the district, for the election of school officers, 
by giving notice as provided by law. There shall be elected at such meeting 
three members of said board of education, to serve until the first Monday in 
October, eighteen hundred and fifty-three ; three until the first Monday in Octo- 
ber, eighteen-hundred and fifty-four ; and three until the first Monday in October, 
eighteen hundred fifty-five. There shall also be elected at said meeting a district 
treasurer, collector, clerk and a librarian, each of whom shall serve until the first 
Monday in October, eighteen hundred and fifty-three. After said election, the 
office of school trustee in said district shall be abolished. 

§ 4. The annual meeting of the inhabitants of said district shall be held on the 
first Monday of October in each year. 

§ 5. The said board of education may call special meetings of said district 
whenever they may deem it necessary, or whenever petitioned by twenty-five 
taxable inhabitants of said district ; they shall give notice of the same by posting 
up a written or printed notice thereof in at least five public places in said district, 
at least one week previous to the time fixed for such meeting, which notice shall 
state the time and place of holding such meeting and the purpose for which the 
same is called ; and no business shall be transacted at any such meeting except 
that stated in the notice calling the same. 

§ 6. At the annual meeting* of said district, in each year, there shall be elected 
three members of said board of education, who shall be residents of said district, 
and shall hold office for three years ; there shall also be elected at said meeting a 
district treasurer, collector, clerk and a librarian, who shall hold office for one 
year ; which election shall be by ballot, and shall be conducted in the same man- 
ner as the annual election for town officers. Said board of education shall appoint 
three inspectors, at least thirty days preceding such election. 

§ 7. Every resignation of officers appointed or elected under this act shall be 
made to the board of education ; and such resignation shall have no force or 
effect, nor in any degree excuse such officer from the discharge of his duties, 
until the same be accepted and approved by a resolution of said board. 

§ 8. Any such officer may be removed from office, for any official misconduct 
or neglect of official duty, by a resolution of said board, two-thirds of the mem- 
bers thereof concurring ; but a written copy of the charges against such officer 
shall be served upon him, and opportunity shall be given to every such officer to 
be heard in his defence, before any such resolution shall be adopted. 

§ 9. Every person appointed or elected to any office mentioned in this act (and 
not having refused to accept), who shall neglect to discharge the duties of such 
office, shall forfeit the sum of twenty dollars to said board of education. It shall 
be the duty of such board of education forthwith to prosecute for all forfeitures 
and penalties under this act. and when recovered to apply the same to the pur- 
poses of education in said district. All officers mentioned in this act shall be 
deemed public officers, within the intent and meaning of section thirty-eight of 
title six of chapter one, part four of the Revised Statutes, and, as such, liable to 
the penalties therein prescribed, in addition to the penalties in this section. 



•S®2 EASTCHESTEE. 

§ 10. Every officer in this act mentioned, having in his possession, custody, 
care, charge or control, any property belonging to said district, or any money 
raised by the provisions of this act or provided by law for the pm-poses of educa- 
tion in said district, shall, at the expiration of his term, or whenever such officer 
shall resign, be removed from office, cease to act, or his office be otherwise vacated, 
transfer all such property and pay over all such money to the board of education. 

§ 11. The said board of education shall, at their first annual meeting, choose 
one of their number for president and one for secretary of said board, who shall 
hold office for one year. In the absence of the president or secretary at any 
regular meeting of the board, a president or secretary may be appointed for the 
time being. The district treasurer and collector shall, within ten days after 
receiving notice in writing of their election, execute and deliver to the said board 
of education a bond, in such penalty and with such sureties as the said boart! 
may deem necessary, conditioned for the faithful discharge of their respective 
duties. In case such bond shall not be given within ten days after receiving such 
notice, such office shall thereby become vacated, and the said board may make 
appointment to fill such vacancy. 

§ 12. The said board cf education may make all necessary by-laws for their 
own government. Vacancies in the board, occurring by resignation or any other 
cause, may be filled by the board until the next annual election, when such 
vacancies shall be filled in the same manner as those caused by expiration of term 
of office. 

The said board shall meet for the transaction of business as often as once in 
each month, and may adjourn for any shorter time. Special meetings may be 
called by the president, or, in his absence or inability to act, by the secretary or 
any other member of the board, as often as necessary, by giving personal notice 
to each member thereof, or causing a written or printed notice to be left at his 
last place of residence at least twenty- four hours before the hour of meeting; and 
if any member of the said board refuses or neglects to attend any three successive 
stated meetings of the board, and if no satisfactory cause of his non-attendance 
be shown, the board may declare his office vacant. 

No member of said board shall receive any pay or compensation for his services 

It shall not be lawful for any member of said board to become a contractor foi 
building or making any improvement or repairs authorized by this act, or be in 
any manner directly or indirectly interested, either as principal, partner or surety, 
in any such contract. All contracts made in violation of this provision shall be 
absolutely void, and the person so violating shall forfeit the sum of fifty dollars. 

§ 13. The title to the school-houses, sites, lots, furniture, books, apparatus and 
appurtenances in this act mentioned, and all other school property in the said 
district, shall be vested in said board of education ; and the same, while used for 
or appropriated to school purposes, shall be exempt from all taxes and assess- 
ments, and shall not be liable to be levied upon and sold by virtue of any warrant 
or execution. And the said board of education, in its corporate capacity, may 
take, hold and dispose of any real or personal estate, transferred to it by gift, 
grant, bequest or devise, for the use of the common schools in the said district, 
or any or either of them, or to mortgage or encumber the same for school purposes, 
with the consent of the district. They shall have and possess, within the said 
district, all the rights, power and authority of town superintendent of common 
schools. They shall have the entire control and management of all the common 
schools within the said district and all the property belonging to the same. They 
shall require one of the members of said board to visit each school in said district 
at least once in each week, to render such assistance to the teachers and advice 
to the pupils as may be necessary, and to see that the regulations are rigidly 
adhered to. 

§ 14. The board of education shall have entire control and charge of the 
dis'trict school library in said district. They may make such additions to the 
library and such regulations in relation thereto as they shall deem necessary. 

§ 15. The said board of education shall have power and are hereby directed to 
levy and collect by tax, in each year, upon all the taxable property and inhabi- 



EASTCHESTER. 383 

tants in said district, as the same shall be assessed by the assessors of the town in 
which the said district is situated, such sum as shall be authorized by a majority 
of the voters at any special or annual meeting of the district, for the purposes 
specified in sections sixteen and eighteen; and the said board shall add to their 
warrant for collection of taxes such amount as they may deem proper for fees for 
collection, not exceeding five per cent on the amount to be collected. Said board 
shall have power to make all warrants, for the collection of the taxes to be raised 
by them, returnable at sixty or ninety days, in their discretion, and to renew the 
same whenever it shall become necessary. 

In case it shall appear that the assessment roll does not include all the taxable 
property of such district, the property omitted shall be assessed by the said board, 
in the mode requried by law, and added thereto. 

§ 16. When, in the opinion of the said board, it becomes necessary to build an 
additional school-house or houses in the district, or to enlarge those already built, 
they shall submit the plans and estimated cost of such building, and furnishing 
the same, to the electors of said district at a special meeting called for that pur- 
pose ; and if a majority of such electors present shall vote in favor of the same, 
the said board may proceed to carry the same into full effect. 

§ 17. Whenever, in the opinion of the board, it may be advisable to sell or ex- 
change any of the school-houses, lots or sites, or any of the school property now 
or hereafter belonging to the district, they shall report the same to the electors 
of said district at a special meeting called for that purpose, and, with the consent 
of a majority of the electors present at said meeting, may sell and dispose of such 
school-houses, lots or sites to the best possible advantage. 

§ 18. Said board of education shall have power, and it shall be their duty, out 
of the funds collected and paid to them, as provided in sections fifteen and 
twenty-two of this act : 

1. To purchase or lease and improve sites for school-houses ; 

2. To build, purchase, lease, enlarge, alter, improve and repair school-houses, 
and their out-houses and appurtenances, so as to afford ample accommodation to 
educate all the children of the said district ; 

3. To purchase, exchange, improve and repair school apparatus, books, furni- 
ture and appendages ; 

4. To procure fuel and defray the contingent expenses of the several schools 
and of the board of education ; 

5. To pay the wages of the teachers employed by them ; 

6. To defray the expenses of insuring all the school property of said district. 

§ 19. The public schools in the district shall be free to all children residing in 
the district. But the board of education may permit children of persons not 
resident within said district to attend said schools, on such terms as they shall 
prescribe ; the said board may, in the name of said district, sue for and recover 
of the father or mother, master or mistress, or any person under whose charge 
such child or children may be, all such sums as shall be so prescribed, with 
costs of suit. 

§ 20. All moneys to be received by virtue of this act, and all moneys by law 
appropriated to or provided for said district, shall be paid to the treasurer, who, 
together with the sureties upon the official bond, shall be accountable therefor to 
said board of education. Said treasurer shall not pay out any of such moneys, 
except by resolution of said board, and upon an order drawn by the president and 
certified by the secretary to be so drawn in pursuance of such resolution. 

§ 21. The town superintendent of common schools of the town of Eastchester 
shall pay over to the treasurer all the public moneys to which said district num- 
ber four may be entitled. 

§ 22. The said board of education shall prepare and submit, at each annual 
meeting of the district, an estimate of the amount necessary to be raised for de- 
fraying the expenses of the district for the ensuing year, speciying the purposes 
for which the same is to be expended. 

§ 23. The said board of education shall, at the annual district meeting, submit a 
full report in writing of their doings as such board, and shall state therein the 



884 FLUSHING. 

number and condition of the schools in said district under their charge, and the 
number of scholars attending the same, the studies pursued, the amount of moneys 
received from the state and from other sources, as well as the amount raised in 
the district for school purposes, the expenditures of the same, and all the particu- 
lars in detail relating to the schools in said district ; which report may, if the 
board think proper, be printed in pamphlet form, or in some newspaper published 
in the county. 

§ 24. All laws and parts of laws inconsistent with this act are hereby repealed, 
so far as relates to district number four in the town of Eastchester. 



DISTRIICT No, 5, IN THE TOWN OF FLUSHINa. 
[Laws of 1848, chap. 81, as amended by chap. Ill of 1849, and 284 of 1854.] 

Section 1. School district number five, in the town of Flushing, in the county 
of Queens, shall form a permanent school district, and shall not be subject to 
alteration by the town superintendent of common schools for the town in which 
said district is situated. 

§ 2. The said district shall be under the direction of a board, to be styled " The 
Board of Education," which board shall consist of five members, three or more of 
whom shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business ; Effingham W. 
Lawrence, Edward E. Mitchell, Samuel B. Parsons, William H. Fairweather and 
Thomas Leggett, junior, shall compose the first board of education, and shall hold 
their offices from one to five years ; that is to say, one shall go out of office in 
each year, and in the order in which their names stand recorded in this section. 

§ 3. There shall be elected in each year, in said district, one member of said 
board of education, who shall be a resident and taxable inhabitant of said district, 
and shall hold his office for five years ; the said election shall take place at the 
annual meeting of said district ; and the board of education shall appoint three 
'suitable persons as inspectors of said election, and of all other elections provided 
for by this act, except as provided in section fourteenth of this act, within thirty 
days next preceding any such election ; such elections shall be by ballot, and 
notice thereof shall be given, the same shall be held and conducted, the votes 
shall be canvassed, and the result of the election determined, in the same manner 
as in the case of the annual election of other village officers. 

§ 4. The board of education may make all necessary by-laws for their govern- 
ment ; they shall have the entire control and management of all the common 
schools within the said district, and all the property belonging to the same ; they 
shall have and possess, within the said district, all the rights, powers and authority 
of town superintendent of common schools. They may appoint a collector, with 
all the powers and duties of a district collector, or may employ the town or vil- 
lage collector for that purpose; and such collector shall collect and pay over the 
school moneys assessed upon said district to tlie treasurer of the board of educa- 
tion in the same manner and under the same conditions as is imposed by the laws 
of the town or village of which he is such collector. They shall require two of 
the members of said board to visit each school in said district at least once in each 
week, to render such assistance to the teachers and advice to tlie pupils as may 
be necessary, and to see that the regulations are rigidly adhered to. 

§ 5. The said board of education are hereby authorized and empowered to 
raise a sum not exceeding the sum of five thousand dollars, either by a tax on said 
district or by a loan, such loan to be secured by a mortgage upon the public 
school property of said district, to be executed by said board in their official 
capacitj'. 

§ 6. The said board of education, in addition to the other taxes which they are 
hereby authorized to raise, may levy and collect a sum sufficient to pay interest 
on loans, as the same becomes due ; and whenever any part of the principal of 
sucli loans becomes due, they shall levy and collect an amount sufficient to pay 



FLUSHING. 385 

the same, which sums, when collected, shall be paid over by said board in dis- 
charge of such principal and interest. 

§ 7. The said board of education are hereby authorized and directed to levy 
and collect by tax in each year, upon all the taxable property in said district, 
such sum as may be necessary, not exceeding in amount one-fourth of one per 
cent on the value of such taxable property, as the same shall be assessed by the 
assessors of the town of Flushing. And the said board shall add to the amount 
of any warrant for the collection of taxes such amount as they shall deem proper, 
as the collector's fees for collection, which compensation, however, shall in no 
case exceed five per cent on the amount of any warrant. 

§ 8. The to-mi superintendent of common schools of the town of Flushing shall 
pay over to the treasurer of the board of education all the public moneys to 
which said district number five shall be entitled for school purposes. 

§ 9. The said board of education shall call an annual district meeting at such 
time in the year as they may think proper, and shall submit thereto a full report 
in writing of their doings as such board, and shall state therein the number and 
condition of the schools in said district under their charge, and the number of 
scholars attending the same, the studies pursued, the amount of moneys received 
from the state, as well as the amount required in the district for school purposes, 
and the expenditure of the same, and, generally, all the particulars relating to 
the schools in said district ; which report shall, immediately after it is made, be 
published in a newspaper published in the town of Flushing, for two weeks, and 
once in each week. 

§ 10. The board of education shall have control and charge of the district 
school library in said district ; they may employ a librarian, make such addition 
to the library and such regulations in relation thereto as they shall deem 
necessary. 

§11. The school for the colored children under the charge of the female asso- 
ciation in the village of Flushing may, with the consent of said association, be 
taken under the charge of the board of education and be organized as a district 
school, and be supported as the other schools in said district are under this act. 

§ 12. Whenever the said board of education shall deem it necessary to erect 
one or more school-houses in said district, they shall prepare an estimate showing 
the location proposed, the cost of the ground required, a plan of the building, 
with the estimated cost of the building and appurtenances, and shall submit the 
same to the electors of said district at a special meeting, to be called for that pur- 
pose in the same manner as other special meetings are required to be called, and 
if a majority of all the electors present at such meeting shall vote in favor of the 
same, then said board may proceed to erect said school-house or houses in the 
manner proposed by said estimate ; and if the sum authorized to be raised by 
section five of this act should be insuflicient to pay the estimated cost of such 
buildings and ground, with the expense of grading and regulating the grounds, 
building the necessary out-houses and fences, with the cost of the necessary 
books, stationery and necessary apparatus for the school-house and rooms, then 
the said board of education may raise a sum, in addition to the sum mentioned in 
section five, and in the manner therein authorized, a sum not exceeding fifteer 
hundred dollars ; and they are also authorized to levy and collect such amount, as 
may be necessary to pay the principal or interest of such additional sum as may 
become due, in the same manner as is provided in section sixth of the said act. 

§ 13. The said board of education may call special meetings of said district 
whenever they may deem it necessary ; they shall give notice of the same by 
posting up a written or printed notice thereof, in at least four public places in 
said village, and by publishing the same in a newspaper published in the village 
of Flushing, at least one week previous to the time fixed for said meeting, which 
notice shall state the time and place of such meeting and the purpose for which 
the same is called ; and no business shall be transacted at any such special meet- 
ing except that stated in the notice calling the same. 

[Code.] 49 



386 FORT COVINGTON. 

FORT COVINGTON, 
[Laws of 1853, chap. 155.] 

Section 1. There shall hereafter be elected in school district number one, 
formed of school districts numbers one and two, in the town of Fort Covington 
and county of Franklin, three or five trustees, who shall respectively hold their 
offices three or five years (as the term of office may be). Preserved Ware, 
Warren L. Manning, William Hogle, G. A. Streeter, H. B. Mears, and George A. 
Cheney are hereby appointed trustees of said district, and shall respectively hold 
said office as follows, namely : the term of office of Preserved Ware and Warren 
L. Manning shall expire at the same time that the time of office of Henry A. 
Paddock, a trustee of said district, shall expire; the term of office of William 
Hogle and G. A Streeter shall expire at the same time that the term of office of 
A. M. Lincoln, a trustee of said district, shall expire ; and the term of office of 
H. B. Mears and George A. Cheney shall expire at the same time that the term 
of office of Christopher Briggs, as trustee of said district, shall expire. 

§ 2. The trustees of said district, and their successors in office, shall constitute 
a board of education for said district ; and, for the purposes of this act, in addition 
to the present powers and duties of trustees, are hereby constituted a body politic 
and corporate, by the name and title of " The Board of Education of the village 
of Fort Covington;" and said corporation shall have power to establish and 
organize a classical school in said village, to be known by the name of the " Fort 
Covington Academy ;" and such classical school shall be subject to all laws and 
regulations applicable to other incorporated academies of this state, and shall be 
entitled to share in the distribution of the moneys of the literature fund, upon 
the same terms as other academies of this state ; and the regents of the univer- 
sity shall recognize said academy as such, as soon as the required sum of money 
shall be expended in buildings and competent teachers employed therein. 

§ 3. Said board of education shall appoint one of their number president of 
said board, who shall preside at the meetings of said board, when present ; when 
absent, a president pro tempore shall be appointed in his stead. They shall also 
appoint one of their number secretary, who shall record all the acts and resolu- 
tions of said board ; and in the absence of the secretary, a secretary pro tempore 
shall be appointed to discharge such duties. They shall also appoint a collector, 
librarian and treasurer of said district, who shall hold their offices (respectively) 
one year from their appointment, and until others are appointed in their places, 
iinless sooner removed by said board ; such collector, librarian and treasurer shall 
each, within ten days after notice has been received of their appointment in writ- 
ing, and before entering upon their duties of office, execute and deliver to said 
board of education a bond, in such penalty and with such sureties as said board 
may require, conditioned for the faithful discharge of the duties of his office. In 
case such bond shall not be given within ten days after receiving such notice, 
such office shall thereby become vacated, and said board of education shall there- 
upon make an appointment to fill such vacancy. 

§ 4. The said board of education shall have power to fill any vacancy which 
may happen by reason of the death, removal from office, or from the said district, 
of any of said board ; and the officer so appointed shall hold his office for the 
unexpired term of the person to supply whose place he shall be appointed. 

§ 5. Said board of education, or any one of them, may be removed from office 
for the non-performance of any duty imposed upon them, or any one of them, 
as set forth in this act, by a two-third vote of the legal voters present of said 
district, at any annual or special meeting of said district ; and the vacancies or 
vacancy then caused may be filled at such annual or special meeting by a majority 
of the legal voters then and there present. Notice of annual and special meetings 
shall be given, in the same manner that annual and special meetings are given in 
the common school districts of this state. 



FORT COVINGTON. ,381 

§ 6. Said board of education shall possess all the poivers and be subject to all 
the duties in respect to said district that the trustees of common schools are now 
subject to or now possess. 

§ 7. The taxable inhabitants of said district, at any annual, special or adjourned 
meeting legally held, may vote to raise such sum of money as they shall deem 
expedient for the purpose of purchasing a site and building a school-house in , 
said district, or for the purpose of purchasing any suitable building for such 
purpose, and direct the trustees to cause the sum to be levied and raised by 
installments, and make out a tax for the collection of the same, as often as such 
installments shall become due ; and the legal voters at any such meeting are 
authorized to fix the compensation for collecting and paying over to the said 
board of education the amount so levied. 

§ 8. The inhabitants of said district shall have no power to rescind the vote to 
raise such sum of money at any subsequent meeting, unless the same be done 
within ten days thereafter ; nor shall they have power to reduce the amount of 
the same after the expiration of ten days from the time the tax was first levied, 
but may remit such sum as shall remain unappropriated after paying for the site 
and erection of the house or purchase of suitable buildings. 

§ 9. The said board of education are hereby authorized to obtain by loan the 
whole or any part of the money legally voted by said district, and secure the 
payment of the same by their official bonds. , 

§ 10. The said board of education are hereby authorized and empowered to 
sell at public action, to the highest bidder, the school-houses and sites belonging 
to said district, by giving public notice, to be posted in ten public places in said 
district, ten days previous to such sale, towards purchasing a site and erecting a 
school house in said district, or to such other purpose as said district shall direct ; 
such sale may be made upon such terms of credit as said board of education shall 
determine upon, and a bond and mortgage taken by said board for the whole or 
any part of the purchase money or price for which said site and house may be 
sold, and such bond and mortgage may be sold and assigned by said board at par, 
for money to be applied by them as herein provided. 

§ 11. The said board of education are hereby authorized and empowered to 
make such by-laws and regulations as they may deem necessary to secure the 
prosperity, order and government of said school, and divide the same into primary 
and higher departments, and regulate the transfer of scholars from one depart- 
ment to the other, and provide suitable instructors for each department, direct 
what text books shall be used in the same, in carrying out the above provisions 
of this section ; the town superintendent of common schools in said town shall 
constitute one of said board ; said board shall purchase fuel and other necessaries 
for the use of the school or schools in said district, and all contracts made by 
them in their official capacity shall be binding on them and their successors in 
office ; to fix and regulate the terms of tuition fees in said primary and other 
higher departments, to sue for and collect in their corporate name any sum of 
money due to said district, to receive and apply to the uses of said school or 
schools, or any department thereof, any gift, legacy, bequest, or annuities, given 
or bequeathed to said board, and apply the same according to the instruction of 
the said doner or testator ; to take and hold any real estate given or bequeathed 
to said board for the purpose of said school or schools, or any department thereof, 
and apply the same, or the interest or proceeds thereof, according to the terms 
and instructions of the doner or testator ; to have in all respects the superintend- 
ence, supervision, management and control of said schools or any department 
thereof (except when otherwise provided for in this act), and to hire, pay, and 
dismiss any teacher or teachers employed by them in said school or any depart- 
ment thereof. 

§ 12. Said board of education shall, in all respects, be subject to the restric- 
tions and control of the superintendents of common schools of the town, county 
and state, in the same manner that the common schools in this state are subject. 

§ 13. Said board of education shall have power and are hereby authorized to 
receive into said academy, and cause to be instructed therein, any pupil or pupils 



388 FOET COVINGTON— GLENS FALLS. 

residing in or out of said district, and to regulate and establish the terms of 
tuition fees of such resident or non-resident pupils. And said board of education 
shall have power to regulate the tuition fees and rates of charges in the higher 
English and classical departments of said academy, and shall have power to make 
such application of the money raised for the support of common schools in said 
district, for the payment of teachers' wages, as said board shall determine, and 
may divide and apportion the same as said board may deem best, to pay the salaries 
of teachers employed in said academy or the elementary English branches in th© 
schools connected therewith or maintained in said district under their supervision. 
The rates of tuition in the elementary English branches in the schools maintained 
in said district shall be subject to the general laws relating to common schools, 
and after applying such portion of the money received in said district as s^id 
board shall determine, to the support of such elementary English department, 
such sum, not to be less than one-half of all the moneys received in said district 
for the support of common schools therein, the additional sum required to pay 
teachers' wages and provide fuel and other contingent expenses necessary to the 
support of such elementary schools, shall be estimated, assessed, collected and 
applied in the manner provided in chapter one hundred and forty and four 
hundred and four of the Session Laws of one thousand eight hundred and forty- 
nine, or in such other manner as shall be hereafter provided by laws for the sup- 
port of common schools. 

§ 14. All moneys raised in said district for the purpose of said school, and all 
moneys to be received by such district from the common school fund or other 
sources, shall be annually paid to the said board of education or to their order, 
and be applied by them for the uses of said school or schools according to law. 

§ 15. The members of said board of education, before receiving any moneys 
belonging to said district, shall severally execute to the town superintendent of 
common schools of the town of Fort Covington, their separate bonds, with two 
sufficient sureties to be approved by said town superintendent, in a penalty at 
least double the amount to be expended by them for the benefit of said school 
during the next ensuing year ; conditioned, that such trustee giving such bond 
will faithfully account for the expenditure of all moneys he shall receive for said 
district and pay over the balance remaining in his hands at the time of the expi- 
ration of his office to the other trustees ; and the district, at any legal meeting 
thereof, may require the penalty of such bond to be increased or additional secu- 
rity to be given by either or all of the trustees, if they shall deem the same 
insufficient ; and any trustee or treasurer of said district, or any member of said 
board, who shall apply any moneys of said district to his own use, shall be 
deemed guilty of embezzlement. 

§ 16. The trustees and stockholders of " Fort Covington Academy " are hereby 
empowered, by a vote of a majority of its members at any regular meeting, to 
convey to the board of education hereinbefore named, their buildings, apparatus, 
books, ftinds, together with all the appurtenances to the said " Fort Covington 
Academy " belonging. 

§ 17. The said board of education shall have the same control over the watering 
places and military lands on the mile square, in the town of Fort Covington, as 
the board of trustees of Fort Covington Academy has heretofore possessed. 



GLENS FALLS. 

By chap, 424, Laws of 1851, the libraries of districts two, seven, eight, eighteen, 
nineteen and twenty, in the town of Queensbury, in Warren county, were united 
into one common library, called the common school library of Glens Falls, 
under the charge of three directors, appointed by the trustees of the village of 
Glens Falls, 



HUDSON. 389 

HUDSON. 

I Laws of 1841, chap. 350, as amended by chap. 12, Laws of 1843, and chap. 132, 

Laws of 1844.] 

Section 1. The members of the common comicil of the city of Hudson shall, 
by virtue of their office, be commissioners for common schools in and for said 
city, and in common council shall perform all the duties of such commissioners, 
and shall possess all the rights, powers and authority, and shall be subject to all 
the duties and obligations of commissioners of common schools [town superinten- 
dent] in the several towns of this state, and shall have power : 

1. To divide the city into school districts, of which there shall not be less than 
three in the compact part of the city ; 

2. They shall designate, purchase or lease, or otherwise obtain, in each school 
district, a site or sites for a school-house or the school-houses therein, and shall 
fence or improve the same in such manner as to them shall appear suitable and 
proper ; 

3. They shall cause to be built or procured in each district such school-house 
or school-houses and out-houses, as shall appear to them suitable and sufficient ; 

4. They shall complete, improve, enlarge or repair any district school-house, 
from time to time, as they shall think proper ; and they shaU supply the district 
school-houses, whenever they shall deem it expedient, with such school appara- 
tus, books, furniture and appendages as they may think necessary ; 

6. They shall appoint, in the manner provided by them for the appointment of 
other officers of said city, three persons, to be denominated a board of superinten- 
dents ; of these three persons the one first chosen shall continue in office for three 
years, the one next appointed shall continue in office for two years, and the one 
last appointed shall continue in office for one year ; 

6. They shall have power, and it shall be their duty, to make such by-laws and 
ordinances as may be in their opinion necessary for the prosperity and good order 
and efficient government of the common schools, and the security and the preser- 
vation of the school-houses and other property belonging to the school districts : 
and to prescribe the duties and powers of the board of superintendents, in all cases 
not provided for by this act ; 

7. They shall require and take from the superintendents and collectors such 
security as they shall deem expedient ; and if such security is not given by any 
superintendent or collector, the said common council may declare his office for- 
feited, and appoint another superintendent or collector in his place ; 

8. They shall supply a vacancy produced in the board of superintendents from 
any cause; the person appointed to fill such vacancy shall continue in office 
during the unexpired remainder of the term for which his predecessor was chosen, 
and no longer, unless reappointed ; 

9. They shall divide the district schools in said city into primary and higher 
departments, or otherwise, whenever they shall deem such division desirable ; and 
they shall prescribe regulations for the transfer of scholars from one department 
to another, and they shall direct the board of superintendents to provide a suffi- 
cient number of suitable instructors for each of these departments. 

§ 2. The clerk of said city, by right of office, shall be the clerk of the mayor 
and aldermen thereof, when acting as commissioners of common schools, and he, 
as such clerk, shall perform all the duties in reference to said city that the town 
clerks in the several towns in this state perform as clerks of common schools in 
such towns, and be subject to the same penalties for the neglect thereof. 

§ 3. The board of superintendents of common schools in the city of Hudson 
shall, in respect to the common schools in said city, possess all the powers and be 
subject to all the duties and obligations of the inspectors of the common schools 
in the diflerent towns in this state ; it shall carry into efiect all the ordinances 
and orders of the common council in respect to common schools ; and it shall 
be lawful for the said common council to assign to said board any duty required 



390 HUDSON. 

of them in respect to the common- schools in said city. The said board shall be 
under the direction of the common council, and they shall have power, and it 
shall be their duty : 

1. To contract fbr and superintend the building, enlarging, improving, fur- 
nishing and repairing of all school-houses Under the charge of said common 
council, and the making of all repairs and improvements on and around the 
same ; 

2. To provide for the safe keeping of the district school-houses in said city ; 

3. To contract with and employ all the teachers in the several districts therein ; 

4. To prevent scholars resident in one district from attending a school in 
another district ; and, also, to prevent scholars from going from one school to 
another in the same district without having, in both the above cases, written per- 
mission so to do from the said board ; 

5. To select such books as they shall deem most suitable to be used as class 
books in the schools, and to establish an uniformity in all the schools in regard 
to the books used therein ; 

6. To visit each school as often as once in each quarter, and to report the con- 
dition of the same, with such suggestions for the improvement thereof to the 
common council as they may deem advisable ; which reports shall be published 
by the common council in two of the city papers ; 

7. To remove any teacher on manifest neglect of duty, or upon his violating 
his contract, upon paying such teacher pro rata for the time he has been 
employed ; 

8. To pay the wages of all the teachers, by orders on the common council, as 
commissioners of common schools, so far as the public money in their hands or 
the money raised by tax, as to be hereafter provided for, and the money paid over 
by the collector of the rate bills, shall be sufiScient for the purpose ; 

9. To make out rate bills for the payment of teacher and contingent expenses 
against the parent or guardian of each scholar, and expense of collection of the 
same (except those exempted, as hereafter to be provided for), which shall not, 
however, exceed two dollars per quarter for each scholar ; and no bill shall be 
made out for less time than one quarter, and to annex thereto a warrant for the 
collection thereof. 

§ 4. The said common council of the city of Hudson shall appoint a collector 
or collectors for the purpose of collecting the rate bills, if any are made out by 
the board of superintendents ; rate bills shall be made out and levied upon the 
parents or guardians of children sent to the district schools, in the manner pro- 
vided by law in respect to school districts, except such as shall procure a certifi- 
cate of inability to pay the same from the aldermen or assistant aldermen of the 
ward in which such parent or guardian resides. 

§ 1. [ Act of 1843.] The board of superintendents, appointed or to be appointed 
under the act hereby amended, are hereby authorized to receive all the moneys 
intended for the support of common schools in and for the city of Hudson, and to 
expend the same as provided in said act. 

§ 2. [Act of 1843.] It shall be the duty of the treasurer of the county of Co- 
lumbia, and of the collectors of taxes in and for the city of Hudson, and of the 
collectors of rate bills, under the provisions of the act hereby amended, to pay 
over directly to the said board of superintendents all the moneys that may come 
into the hands of said treasurer and said collectors, respectively, intended for the 
benefit and support of common schools in said city. 

§ 5. The said common council shall be authorized to borrow the sum of five 
thousand dollars for twenty years, at a rate of interest not exceeding six per cent 
per annum, for the purpose of procuring suitable school-houses for said city, with 
such appurtenances and improvements as may be deemed expedient. 

§ 6. The comptroller is hereby authorized to loan to the city of Hudson the 
sum of five thousand dollars, to be paid in twenty equal annual instalments, out 
of any moneys, now or hereafter in the treasury of this state, belonging to the 
capital of the common school fund, on receiving from the chamberlain, in behalf 
fo the said city, a bond, conditioned from him as treasurer of said city and his 



HUDSON. 391 

successor in office, to repay the said sum in twenty equal annual instalments, 
together with the annual interest on said loan from the time it was made at the 
rate of six per cent per annum, and which bond said chamberlain is hereby 
authorized to make and execute. 

§ 7. The common council of said city are hereby authorized to raise by tax 
upon the real and personal property of said city, in the same manner as the gene- 
ral taxes of said city are levied and collected, the annual interest of the above 
mentioned loan, and to pay over the same in discharge of such interest ; and also, 
in each year in which an instalment of the above loan shall become due, to raise, 
levy and collect, in the same manner, a sum equal to that instalment, and to pay 
over the same in discharge thereof; and the said common council shall also in 
the same manner raise, levy and collect such sum annually, not exceeding two 
hundred dollars, as may be necessary for repairs, furniture of said school build- 
ings and contingent expenses. 

§ 8. The common council of the city of Hudson, at their annual meeting in 
each year, shall cause a sum of money equal to four times the amount of money 
apportioned to the city of Hudson from the common school fund, together with 
the collector's fees, to be raised, levied and collected in the same manner that 
other taxes are raised, levied and collected, and when so raised to be paid to the 
board of superintendents for the support of common schools in said city. 

§ 9. After the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, the common 
council shall have it in their power to reduce, if they deem it expedient, the above 
sum to twice the amount apportioned to the city of Hudson from the common 
school fund, and have recourse to the system of rate bills, as adopted in the seve- 
ral towns in this state, to supply deficiencies. 

§ 1. [Act of ISl-l.] It shall be the duty of the board of superintendents of com- 
mon schools of the city of Hudson annually hereafter to appoint a librarian for the 
joint school district library in said city, who shall perform all the duties and be sub- 
ject to all the restrictions and liabilities now required or imposed upon librarians in 
the several school districts of the state ; and may be removed from office and a 
successor appointed by said superintendents for any wilful neglect of duty, and 
whenever they shall have reason to apprehend the loss of or injury to any of the 
books belonging to such library through his misconduct. 

§ 2. [Act of 1844.] The common council of said city are hereby authorized and 
empowered annually to appropriate such sum for the compensation of said libra- 
rian as they may deem expedient, not to exceed the sum of fifty dollars, which 
shall be raised, levied and collected in the manner as other city charges, and 
when so collected shall be paid over to the superintendents aforesaid, to be by 
them appropriated as specified in the first section of this act. 

§ 10. All the general laws of this state relating to common schools and their 
officers, except as the same are modified by this act, shall extend to and include 
the schools established under this act, and the commissioners, inspectors and other 
officers having charge thereof or in any way connected therewith. 

§ 11. All laws relating to the appointment of commissioners and inspectors of 
common schools in the city of Hudson, and the act entitled " An act to authorize 
the raising of money for the support of the Lancaster school of the city of Hudson," 
passed May 11, 1835, and all other acts which conflict with this act, are hereby 
repealed. 

[ Laws of 1854, chap. 179. ] 

TITLE XI. OF COMMON SCHOOLS. 

§ 104. The act entitled " An act in relation to common schools in the city of 
Hudson," passed May 26, 1841, and the amendments thereto, shall continue in 
force, except that section eight of said act shall be and hereby is amended, so as 
to make it the duty of the common council of the pity, instead of the supervisors 
of the county of Columbia, to cause the requisite amoimt of school moneys to 
be levied and collected with the tax for city purposes. 



392 JAMAICA. 

JAMAICA. 
[Lawsof 185S, chap. 5SS.] 

Section 1. The village of Jamaica, in the town of Jamaica, in the county of 
Queens, shall form a permanent school district, and shall not be subject to altera- 
tion by the town superintendent of common schools for the town of Jamaica. 

§ 2. The said district shall be under the direction of a board, to be styled " The 
Board of Education." Such board shall consist of five members, three of whom 
shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. Gasper Phraner, 
Piermont Potter, John A. King, John D. Shelton and Latham M. Jaggar shall 
compose the first board of education, and shall hold their office from oue to five 
years ; that is to say, one shall go out of office in each year, and in the order in 
which their names stand recorded in this section. 

§ 3. At the first annual meeting in said district, and at each annual meeting 
thereafter, there shall be elected one member of said board of education, who 
shall hold his office for the term of five years ; also a district collector, both of 
whom shall be residents and tax payers in said district ; and said collector shall 
collect and pay over the school moneys assessed upon said district to the treasurer 
of the board of education in the same manner and upon the same conditions as 
the town collector. And the board of education shall appoint three suitable 
persons as inspectors of said election and of all other elections, as provided by 
this act, within thirty days next preceding any such election. Such election shall 
be by ballot ; and notice thereof shall be given, the same shall be held and con- 
ducted, the votes shall be canvassed, and the result of the election shall be 
determined, in the same manner as for village officers. 

§ 4. The said board of education shall, at their first annual meeting, choose 
one of their number for president, one for secretary and one for treasurer, who 
shall hold office for one year. The treasurer shall execute a bond conditioned for 
the faithful performance of his duties, in such form and with such sureties as the 
said board shall approve. An election for said officers shall be held thereafter on 
the same day of the same week of the same month on which. the first election 
was held. If from any cause the election shall not take place on the day 
appointed, it shall be held within one week thereafter. Until such election, the 
old officers shall continue to perform their respective functions. 

§ 5. The said board of education may make such by-laws as they may deem 
necessary for their own government ; they shall have the entire control and man- 
agement of all the common schools within their said district, and all the property 
belonging to the same ; they shall have and possess, within the said district, all 
the rights, powers and authority of town superintendent of common schools. 
They shall require one of the members of said board to visit each school in said 
district at least once in each week, to render such assistance to the teachers and 
advice to the pupils as may be necessary, and to see that the rules and regula- 
tions are strictly enforced. And the said board of education shall have the power 
to take by purchase and devise, and to hold, any real and personal estate necessary 
for the purposes of this act ; and also to sell and convey the school-houses and 
sites now situated in said district, and to execute and deliver good and valid con- 
veyances therefor. 

§ 6. All moneys belonging to the said district shall be deposited in a bank or 
ttust company, to be designated by the board of education, or loaned out on 
interest upon ample security, under the direction of the board. No moneys shall 
be paid out or securities changed, except under the direction of the board of 
education, and then by order of the president, countersigned by the secretary. 

§ 7. Whenever the said board of education shall deem it necessary to erect one 
or more school-houses in said district, and before they shall proceed to raise any 
money, as provided for in section eight, they shall prepare an estimate, showing 
the location proposed, the cost of the ground, a plan of the building, with the 
estimated cost of construction, and shall submit the same to the electors of said 



JAMAICA. 393 

district at a special meeting, to be called for that purpose in the same manner as 
other special meetings are required to be called, and if a majority of all the 
electors present shall vote in favor of the same, then said board may proceed to 
erect said school-house or houses in the manner proposed by said estimate ; and 
if the sum authorized to be raised by section eight of this act should be insuflB- 
cient to pay the estimated cost of such erection or erections and premises, with 
the expense of grading and regulating the grounds, building the necessary out- 
houses and fences, with the cost of necessary books, stationery and appurtenances 
for the school-house or houses and rooms, then the said board of education may 
raise, in addition to the sum mentioned in section eight of this act, and in the 
manner therein authorized, a sum not exceeding one thousand dollars ; and they 
are also authorized to levy and collect such amount as may be necessary to pay 
the principal or interest of such additional sum or sums, as the same may become 
due, in the manner provided by section nine of this act. 

§ 8. The said board of education are hereby authorized and empowered to 
raise a sum, not exceeding five thousand dollars, for the purpose of erecting a 
school-house or houses in said district, either by tax on such district, or a loan to be 
secured by a mortgage upon the public school property of said district, to be 
executed by said board in their oiHcial capacity, signed by the president and 
secretary, or by the issue of .ertificates of loan, in sums of not less than one hun- 
dred dollars, the said certificates to be signed by the president of said board, and 
to be a lien upon the school district property. The comptroller of the State of 
New- York is hereby authorized to loan to said district any moneys in the treasury 
belonging to the capital of the common school fund, as is authorized by this sec- 
tion to be borrowed. 

§ 9. The said board of education, in addition to the other taxes which they are 
authorized to raise by this act, may levy and collect a sum sufficient to pay 
interest on loans as the same become due, and whenever any part of the principal 
of such loans becomes due, they shall levy and collect an amount sufficient to pay 
the same, which sums, when collected, shall be paid over by said board in dis- 
charge of such principal and interest. 

§ 10. The said board of education are hereby authorized and directed to levy 
and collect by tax, in each year, such sum as may be necessary upon all the 
taxable property in said district, not exceeding in amount one-fifth of one 
per cent on the value of such taxable property, as the same shall be assessed by 
the assessors of the town of Jamaica ; and the said board shall add to the amount 
of any warrant for the collection of taxes such amount as they shall deem proper, 
as the collector's fees for collection, which compensation, however, shall in no 
case exceed five per cent on the amount of any warrant. 

§ 11. The town superintendent of common schools of the town of Jamaica shall 
pay over to the treasurer of the board of education all the public moneys to which 
said district shall be entitled for school purposes. 

§ 12. The said board of education shall call an annual district meeting at such 
time in the year as they may think proper, by giving the notice now required by 
law for annual meetings in school districts, and at such meeting they shall submit 
thereto a full report in writing of their doings at such board ; and they shall state 
therein the number of children residing in the said district of whom public money 
is drawn, how many white children and how many colored ; they shall also state 
the number and condition of the schools in said district under their charge, and 
the number of pupils attending the same, the studies pursued, the amount of 
moneys received from the state or other sources, as well as the amount raised in 
the district for school purposes, and the expenditure of the same, and generally 
all the particulars relating to the schools in said district. 

§ 13. The board of education shall have control and charge of the district 
school library in said district ; they may employ a librarian, make such additions 
to the libra|y and such regulations therefor as they shall deem necessary, 

§ 14. A school for colored children may be organized by said board, and be 
supported in the same manner as other schools shall be supported under and by 
virtue of this act. 

[Code.] 50 



394 LANSINGBURGH— LOCKPORT. 

§ 15. The said board of education may call special meetings of said district 
whenever they may deem it necessary ; they shall give notice of the same by 
posting up a written or printed notice thereof in at least six public places in said 
district, and by publishing the same in the newspapers published in said district 
at least one week previous to the time fixed for such meeting, which notice shall 
state the time and place of such meeting and the purpose for which the same is 
called ; and no business shall be transacted at any such special meeting except 
that stated in the notice calling the same. 

§ 16. All laws and parts of laws inconsistent with this act are hereby repealed, 
so far as they relate to the village of Jamaica. 



LANSINGBURGH. 

[Laws of 1847, cTiap. 336.] 

The provisions of this act are the same in tenor and effect, for District No. 1 
of the town of Lansingburgh, as those of the act on page 375, ante, in respect to 
Districts Nos. 2, 3, 5 and 7 in Castleton. 

LOCKPORT. 

[Laws of 1847, chap. 61 ; Laws of 1850, chap. 77.] 

Section 1. School districts numbers one, two, five, seven, eight, fifteen and 
sixteen, of Lockport, lying principally within the village of Lockport, are hereby 
consolidated for the purposes and to the extent in this act specified ; and shall 
hereafter, for such purposes, and to such extent, form but one school district, to 
be called "The union school district of Lockport." 

§ 2. Said seven school districts shall remain and continue separate and distinct, 
for the purposes and to the extent in this act specified; and shall be called 
"primary school districts," and numbered as follows : 

Said district number one shall form primary district number one ; 

Said district number two shall form primary district number two ; 

Said district number seven shall form primary district number three ; 

Said district number fifteen shall form primary district number four ; 

Said district number eight shall form primary district number five ; 

Said district number sixteen shall form primary district number six ; and 

Said district number five shall form primary district number seven. 
Said districts shall not be subject to alteration except by the acts of the legis- 
lature, or by resolution of the board of education hereinafter created. The 
schools in said primary districts shall be used as preparatory schools for the 
instruction of children until they arrive at a certain age, and attain a certain 
proficiency in learning, who shall then be transferred, upon the proper testimo- 
nials, into the union school hereinafter mentioned; the age, qualilications and 
testimonials to be prescribed by the by-laws, rules and regulations of the board 
of education hereinafter created. 

§ 3. Sullivan Caverno, residing in primary district number one ; 

"William G. M'Master, residing in primary district number two ; 

Joseph T. Bellah,.residing in primary district number three ; 

Silas H. Marks, residing in primary district number four ; 

Isaac C. Coulton, residing in primary district number five; 

John S. Woolcott, residing in primary district number six ; and 

Edwin L. Boardman, residing in primary district number seven, 
are hereby appointed trustees in behalf of such districts respectively ;*Und Nathan 
Dayton, Samuel Works, Jonathan L. Woods, Lyman A. Spaulding and Hiram 
Gardner are hereby appointed trustees in behalf of said union district. The 



LOCKPORT. 395 

trustees so named, and their successors, to be chosen as hereinafter provided, are 
hereby constituted a corporation by the name of " The Boardof Education for the 
village of Lockport." 

§ 4. On the first Monday of September next there shall be elected, in the 
manner that trustees of school districts are now elected, by each primaiy district, 
one trustee (who shall be a resident of such primary district), to fill the places 
of those named in the last section, in behalf of such districts respectively. On 
the first Monday of October next there shall be elected, in like manner, by a 
meeting of the persons qualified to vote for school district officers, residing within 
the bounds of said union district, five trustees, resident of said union district, to 
fill the places of Uiose named in the last section, in behalf of said union district. 
Annually thereafter, on the days above specified for such elections, there shall, in 
like manner, be elected four trustees to fill the places of those whose terms shall 
next thereafter expire, as hereinafter provided. The trustees named in the third 
section above shall hold their offices until the first Monday of January next, and 
until their successors shall be chosen and enter upon the discharge of the duties 
of their offices respectively. Every officer elected under this act shall enter upon 
the duties of his office on the first Monday of January next succeeding his 
election, and shall hold his office for the term hereinafter provided, and until his 
successor shall be elected, and shall enter upon the discharge of the duties of his 
office. Within ten days after any such election, the clerk of such district shall 
certify to said board of education the names of the officers so elected. 

§ 5. Within ten days after the first election of trustees of said union district, as 
provided in the last section, all the trustees so elected by said primary and union 
districts, or a majority of them, shall meet and cause the whole number of trustees 
so elected to be divided into three classes, to be severally numbered first, second 
and third. The term of office of the first class shall expire at the end of one 
year ; of the second class, at the end of two years ; and of the third class, at the 
end of three years from the first Monday of January next. There shall also be 
elected in each of said districts, at the time of so electing trustees, a clerk, who 
shall hold his office for one year, and until his successor be elected and enter upon 
the duties of his office. 

§ 6. There shall annually be appointed, by said board of education, a collector, 
librarian and treasurer of said union district, who shall each, within ten days 
af\;er receiving notice in writing of his appointment, and before entering upon the 
duties of his office, execute and deliver to said board of education a bond, in such 
penalty and with such sureties as said board may require, conditioned for the 
faithful discharge of the duties of his office. In case such bond shall not be given 
within ten days after receiving such notice, such office shall thereby become 
vacated, and said board of education shall thereupon make an appointment to 
siipply such vacancy. 

§ 7. Notices for annual elections and all other meetings of said districts shall 
be given by said board of education, at least ten days before such election or 
meeting, by publishing such notice once in each of the newspapers printed in the 
village of Lockport ; and if such notice be for an election or meeting of said union 
district, by posting the same on the door of the school-house in each primary dis- 
trict ; if such notice be for an election or meeting of any primary district, then by 
posting such notice on the door of the school-house in such district. 

§ 8. In case of a vacancy of any office mentioned in this act, occasioned by the 
death of such officer, his refusal to serve, removal out of the district for which he 
shall have been elected or appointed, his incapacity, or any cause other than the 
expiration of the term of office of persons elected, said board of education may 
make an appointment to fill such vacancy. The officer so appointed shall hold 
his office for the unexpired term of the person, to supply whose place he shall be 
so appointed. 

§ 9. Said board of education shall be a corporate body, in relation to all the 
powers and duties conferred upon them by virtue of the provisions of this act ; a 
majority of the board shall form a quorum. 



S96 LOCKPORT. 

§ 10. Said board of education shall possess all the powers and be subject to all 
the duties, in respect to all of said school districts, that the trustees of common 
schools now possess or are subject to, and such other powers and duties as are 
given or imposed by this act. The clerk, collector and librarian of said union 
district shall possess all the powers and be subject to all the duties, in respect to 
said union district, that like officers of common schools now possess or are subject 
to, and such other' powers and duties as are given or imposed by this act. The 
offices of collector and librarian, and two of the trustees of each of the school. dis- 
tricts hereby consolidated, shall be abolished from and after the time when said 
union school shall go into operation. In the mean time, such officers and the 
several districts, in district meetings, shall continue to discharge such ordinary 
powers and duties as said board of education may by resolution prescribe ; but 
they shall not possess or exercise any right or power which may conflict with the 
provisions of this act, or impair the powers hereby intended to be conferred on 
said board of education, or in any way embarrass the said board of education in 
the exercise of the powers or in the, discharge of the duties conferred or imposed 
upon said board by the provisions of this act. 

§ 11. Said board of education shall, at its first meeting, and annually there- 
after, at their meeting held next after the first of January in each year, appoint 
one of their number president and another secretary. In the absence of either of 
such officers at any regular meeting of the board, a president or secretary may 
be appointed for the time being. ^ 

§ 12. The secretary shall keep a record of the proceedings of said board of 
education, which record or a transcript therefrom, certified by the president and 
secretary, shall be received in all courts as presumptive evidence of the facts 
therein set forth. 

§ 13. Each member of said board of education, and every other officer of said 
union district, before entering upon the duties of his office, shall take and sub- 
scribe the oath of office prescribed by the constitution of this state and file the 
same with the secretary of said board. 

§ 14. Said board of education shall have power, and it shall be their duty : 

1. To establish and organize so many primary schools as they shall deem 
requisite and expedient, and to alter and discontinue the same ; 

2. To purchase or hire school-houses, rooms, lots or sites for school-houses, and 
to fence and improve them as they may think proper ; 

3. Upon such lots or sites, and upon any lot or site now owned by any primary 
district, to build, enlarge, alter, improve and repair school-houses, out-houses and 
appurtenances, as they may deem advisable ; 

4. To purchase, exchange, improve and repair school apparatus, books, furni- 
ture and appendages ; to provide fuel for the schools, and defray their contingent 
expenses and the expenses of the library and salary of the librarian ; 

5. To have the custody and safe keeping of the school-houses, out-houses, ap- 
paratus, books, furniture and appendages, and see that the ordinances and by-laws 
of said board in relation thereto be observed ; 

6. To contract with and employ all teachers in all the schools under their charge 
and at their pleasure to remove them ; 

7. To pay the wages of such teachers out of the public money and tuition fees 
to be received by them, according to the provisions of this act, so far as the same 
shall be sufficient, and the deficiency, if any, out of the moneys to be raised for 
general purposes of education under and by virtue of the provisions of this act ; 

8. To fix the rate of tuition fees in said union school, subject to the limitations 
and restrictions hereinafter contained, and to designate some person or persons to 
whom the same may be paid previous to issuing the warrant for the collection 
thereof; and, by a resolution of said board, to be recorded by the secretary, to 
exempt from the payment of the whole or any part of the tuition fees such per- 
sons as they may deem entitled to such exemption from indigence or any other 
sufficient cause ; 

9. After the close of each quarter of said union school to make out a rate bill 
containing the name of each person liable to pay tuition fees for tuition in said 



LOCKPORT. 391 

union scliool, who shall not have paid the same prior to making out such rate bill, 
according to the provisions of the last preceding subdivision of this section, and 
the amount for which such person is liable, adding thereto a sum not exceeding 
five cents on each dollar for collector's fees ( which fees shall be fixed by said 
board at the time of making out every rate bill) ; to annex thereto a warrant for 
the collection thereof, to be signed by the president of said board or a majority 
of the members thereof, and deliver the same to the collector, who shall collect 
the same in the same manner as collectors of school districts are by law au- 
thorized and required to execute like warrants issued by the trustees of common 
school districts, and who, in the execution of the same, shall be under the same 
protection, possess all the powers and be subject to all the duties as such col- 
lectors now have, possess and are subject to in respect to like warrants ; and, for 
this purpose, the jurisdiction of said board of education and of said collector 
shall extend to any other district or town, and to any resident of such other 
district or town who may be liable for tuition in said union school, in the same 
manner and with the like authority as to said union district or residents of said 
union district ; 

10. To have in all respects the superintendence, supervision, management and 
control of all the schools mentioned or contemplated in and by the provisions 
of this act ; to prescribe the course of studies therein, the books to be used, and 
establish an uniformity in respect to such course of studies and books; from 
time to time to adopt, alter, modify and repeal, as they may deem expedient, rules, 
regulations and ordinances for the organization, government and instructions of 
such schools, for the reception of pupils and their transfer from one school to 
another, for the promotion of their good order, prosperity and public utility, for 
the protection, safe keeping, care and preservation of school-houses, lots, sites 
and appurtenances, and all other property connected with or appertaining to such 
schools ; 

11. To cause such rules, regulations, ordinances and by-laws to be published 
in such manner and form as they may deem best calculated to give general infor- 
mation ; to cause one copy thereof, together with a copy of this act, to be kept in 
each of said schools ; and such parts thereof as relate to such schools, respectively, 
to be read therein at least once during each quarter ; 

12. Said board of education shall in all respects be subject to the visitation 
and control of the superintendents of common schools of the town, county and 
state, in the same manner as the common schools in this state are subject. 

§ 15. Said board of education shall have power, and it shall be their duty, to 
raise from time to time, by tax upon the real and personal estate within the 
bounds of said union district which shall be liable to taxation for the ordinary 
taxes of said village or for town or county charges, such sums as may be deter- 
mined, by resolution of said board, to be necessary for any and all the purposes 
mentioned in the last preceding section, or to meet any deficiency arising from 
any cause connected with the subject of education in said village ; to provide for 
which, power shall be given to said board by the provisions of this act, the laws 
relating to common schools, or the rules and regulations of the superintendent of 
common schools. Whenever any sum of money shall be needed by any primary 
district for any of the objects in this or the last preceding section mentioned, 
except for teachers' wages, said board of education shall cause such amount to 
be assessed, levied and collected from the property of such district by the same 
warrant, in addition to and in connection with the tax next to be raised for the 
general purposes of education imder and by virtue of the provisions of this act, 
making therefor a separate column in said tax list. The treasurer shall keep a 
separate account of all moneys so raised for such primary district, and said board 
of education shall, by orders on such specific fund, draw out such moneys only 
for such objects and in favor of such primary district. 

Said board of education shall, at the commencement of each year, make an 
estimate, by the best means in their power, of the amount of money which will be 
needed for all the purposes of education, and other purposes provided for by this 
act, over and above the moneys to be received from the town superintendent and 



398 LOCKPORT. 

from tuition fees, and shall cause the same to be raised by one assessment and 
warrant ; and not more than two taxes for such purposes shall ever be raised in 
one year. 

The amount of money so to be raised in any one year, after the first year, shall 
not be less than the amoimt received in behalf of all said districts, from the town 
superintendent, for the year next preceding; nor more than four times that 
amount, unless such greater amount shall be authorized by a vote of the taxable 
inhabitants of said union district, at a regular meeting of such district. 

§ 16. Said board of education shall have power, and it shall be their duty, forth- 
with to purchase a suitable lot, so situated as best to convene the whole of said 
union district, not to exceed in cost the sum of twenty-five hundred dollars, and 
procure a clear title thereof, to be vested, by deed, in said board of education ; 
to cause said lot to be graded, fenced and otherwise properly improved ; to erect 
thereon a suitable and proper building or buildings, to be built of stone or brick, 
not to exceed in expense the sum of eight thousand dollars, nor to cost less than 
five thousand dollars; ftirnish the same with all proper, useful and necessary fur- 
niture, apparatus and appendages ; as soon as the building is in proper condition, 
employ a sufficient number of well educated teachers, male and female, and cause 
a school to be commenced therein, to be called "The Lockport Union School," 
in which shall be taught only the higher branches of education. 

The tuition fee in said union school shall not exceed two dollars each per quar- 
ter for pupils whose parents or guardians reside within the territory of said union 
district ; for all other pupils, said tuition fee shall not be less than two dollars 
nor more than five dollars per quarter. No tuition fee shall thereafter be charged, 
nor any rate bill be made for tuition in the primary schools, but the same shall 
be free schools. 

§ 17. Said board of education shall, as soon as practicable, make an estimate 
of the amount of money which, in their opinion, will be necessary for the 
purposes in the last section specified, and also for such purposes specified in 
section fourteen of this act as may be needed or required for the first year, and 
shall forthwith assess, levy and collect the same, by tax upon real and personal 
estate, as specified in section fifteen of this act. They shall, for this and all other 
taxes to be raised bj'' them, make out a tax list, in the manner and form in which 
like tax lists are now made by trustees of school districts, so far as such form is 
applicable ; annex thereto a warrant, in like form, signed by the president or a 
majority of the members of said board, and deliver the same to the collector; 
which, when so made and signed, shall be as effectual, to all intents and purposes, 
as like tax lists and warrants when made by the trustees of common school dis- 
tricts. Said board may, in respect to the collection of all taxes, conform to the 
provisions of the twenty-ninth, thirtieth and thirty-first sections of the one 
hundred and eightieth chapter of the Session Laws of one thousand eight hundred 
and forty-five, and require the collector to comply with the provisions of said 
sections, so far as the same are applicable. Said board may so far vary from the 
provisions of said sections, as to time and places, as to render them applicable, 
and may make such warrants returnable at sixty or ninety days, in their discretion, 
instead of thirty days, as now required by law in respect to such warrants made 
by trustees of common school districts ; but all property now exempt, by section 
twenty-two, title five, chapter six, part third of the Revised Statutes, from execu- 
tion, shall be exempt from all such warrants. 

§ 18. All moneys to be raised by virtue of this act, and all moneys by law 
appropriated to or provided for said district, shall be paid to the treasurer of 
said board, who, together with the sureties upon his official bond, shall be account- 
able therefor to said board of education. Said treasurer shall not pay out any 
of such moneys, except by resolution of said board, and upon an order drawn by 
the president and certified by the secretary, to be so drawn in pursuance of such 
i-esolution. 

§ 19. Said board of education shall meet for the transaction of business as 
often as once in each month, and may adjourn for any shorter time. Special 
meetings may be called by the president, or, in his absence or inability to act, by 



LOCKPORT. 399 

the secretary or any other member of the board, as often as necessary, by giving 
personal notice to each member of the board, or causing a written or printed 
notice to be left at his last place of residence, at least twenty-four hours before 
the hour of meeting. No member of said board shall receive any pay or compen- 
sation for his services. It shall not be lawful for any member of said board, or 
any other officer of either of said districts, to become a contractor for building 
or making any improvement or repairs authorized by this act, or be in any manner 
directly or indirectly interested, either as principal, partner or surety, in any 
such contract. All contracts made in violation of this provision shall be 
absolutely void, and the person so violating shall forfeit the sum of fifty dollars, 
to be prosecuted for and recovered by said board. 

§ 20. Instead of the report now required by law to be made by trustees of 
school districts to the town superintendent of common schools, the trustee so be 
elected for each primary district shall, within the time now required by law, 
make such report to said board of education, and shall therein embrace such other 
and further matters as may be required and prescribed by said board, or as such 
trustee may think the interests of such primary district or school may require. 
Said board of education shall annually, between the first of January and the first 
of March in each year, make to the town superintendent of common schools a 
report containing all such matters, relating as well to said union district and 
union school as to said primary districts and their schools, as is now or shall 
hereafter be required by law, or the regulations of the superintendent of common 
schools, to be reported to said town superintendent, and such other and further 
matters as they may deem advisable. Such report shall be received, by said town 
superintendent, instead of the reports now required from each of said seven 
districts. A copy of such report shall be filed with the secretary of said board. 

§ 21. Said board of education shall, from time to time, appoint such and so 
many members of their board as they may deem proper, not less than three in 
number, a visiting committee ; whose duty it shall be to visit said union school 
and each of said primary schools as often as once in each quarter, and make a 
report in writing to said board, showing the state and condition of each school, 
school-house, apparatus and appendages, and such other matters as said board 
may require of them, and such suggestions for the improvement of the s*ne 
as they may deem proper and advisable ; such reports shall be filed and kept 
among the papers of said board. Such board may, in their discretion, cause such 
reports, or any parts of the same or the substance thereof, and any and all other 
matters relating to said schools, to be published in such form as they may deem 
advisable. They shall, at the close of each year, publish in one or more of the 
village newspapers a report of the moneys received and expended by them during 
the year, and such other matters as they deem advisable. 

§ 22. Whenever, in the opinion of said board, the interests of any primary dis- 
trict require the sale or exchange of the school lot therein, said board may cause 
such sale or exchange to be made, and hold the proceeds thereof for the use and 
benefit of such primary district. 

§ 23. The title of school-houses, sites, lots, furniture, books, apparatus and 
appurtenances, and all other school property in this act mentioned, shall be vested 
in said board of education ; and the same, while used for or appropriated to 
schools purposes, shall be exempt from all taxes and assessments, and shall not 
be liable to be levied upon or sold by virtue of any warrant or execution. Said 
board of education in their corporate capacity shall be able to take, hold and 
dispose of any real or personal estate transferred to it by gift, grant, bequest or 
devise for the use of said schools or any or either of them ; provided, however, 
that said board shall not have power to sell, grant, dispose of or incumber said 
union school lot. 

§ 24. Every officer in this act mentioned, having at the time the possession, 
custody, care, charge or control of any property belonging to said schools or 
any or either of them, or any money raised by the provisions of this act or provided 
by law for the purposes of education in said village, shall, at the expiration of 
his term, or whenever such officer shall resign, be removed from office, cease to 



400 LOCKPORT. 

act, or his office be otherwise vacated, transfer all sucli property and pay over all 
such money to the board of education. 

§ 25. Every resignation of officers £«ppointed or elected under this act shall be 
made to the board of education; and such resignation shall have no force or 
effect, nor in any degree excuse such officer from the discharge of his duties, until 
the same be accepted and approved by a resolution of said board. 

§ 26. Any such officer may be removed from office for any official misconduct 
or neglect of official duty by resolution of said board, two-thirds of the members 
thereof concurring. Opportunity shall be given to every such officer to be heard 
in his defence before any such resolution shall be adopted. 

§ 27. Every person appointed or elected to any office mentioned in this act, 
who, without sufficient cause, shall refuse to serve therein, shall forfeit the sum 
of ten dollars ; and every person so appointed or elected, and not having refused 
to accept, who shall neglect to discharge the duties of such office, shall forfeit 
the sum of twenty dollars to said board of education. It shall be the duty of 
said board of education forthwith to prosecute for all forfeitures and penalties 
under this act, and when recovered to apply the same to the purposes of educa- 
tion in said village. All officers mentioned in this act shall be deemed public 
officers, within the intent and meaning of section thirty-eight of title six 
of chapter one, part four of the Revised Statutes, and, as such, liable to the 
penalty therein prescribed, in addition to the penalty in this section before pro- 
vided, 

§ 28. The several libraries of the said seven districts are hereby consolidated 
into one. Said board of education shall cause a suitable and proper room to be 
fitted up in said union school building, and furnished with necessary and suitable 
fixtures, furniture, apparatus and appendages, and transfer said library thereto 
and put il under the charge of a librarian. They shall annually allow and pay 
to said librarian such salary as in their opinion shall be a fair and reasonable 
compensation for his services, but not to exceed the sum of fifty dollars in any 
one year. They shall pass such by-laws for the regulation and preservation of 
said library and for the discharge of the duties of the librarian as they may 
think necessary. The library money hereafter to be received in behalf of said 
districts shall be paid by the town superintendent to the treasurer of said board. 
Said board shall expend such money entirely for the purchase of books and maps 
for the library. 

§ 29. Lands of residents and non-residents of said districts may be sold by said 
board for uncollected taxes, assessed thereon for school purposes by virtue of the 
provisions of this act, in the same manner and by like proceedings as the trustees 
of said village adopt to sell lands for unpaid taxes assessed for village purposes, 
and such sales shall have the like eflect as sales so made by the trustees of said 
village ; or, the lands of residents and non-residents of said districts said board 
may cause to be returned to the county treasurer, in the same manner as trustees 
of common school districts are now authorized by law to return unoccupied and 
unimproved real estate of non-residents of their districts for unpaid taxes assessed 
thereon. Said county treasurer shall pay to said board the amount of such taxes 
out of any moneys in the county treasury raised for contingent expenses ; and 
such proceedings, in all respects, shall thereafter be had by said county treasurer 
and the board of supervisors of the county of Niagara, in relation to all lands 
so returned, as they are by law required to take in respect to unoccupied and 
unimproved lands of non-residents when so returned by trustees of common 
school districts; but no lands shall be so sold or returned until a reasonable 
effort shall have been made to collect such taxes by warrant, as provided in sec- 
tion seventeen of this act, and the collector shall have returned that he cannot 
collect the same. 

§ 30. Said board of education may cause a school for colored children to be 
taught in said village, and include the expenses thereof in the amount so to be 
raised annually by tax for contingent expenses and other purposes of education 
provided for in this act. 



LOCKPORT. 401 

§ 31. Said board of education may organize in said union school a department 
for the instruction of teachers, for such parts of the year and under such rules 
and regulations as they may by their by-laws adopt relative thereto. 

§ 32. Said board of education may at any time hereafter, whenever in their 
opinion the wants and interests of said schools shall require it, establish a class of 
so many schools, intermediate said primary and union schools, as they may deem 
advisable, to be called secondary schools ; and for this purpose consolidate such 
and so many of said primary districts as they may deem advisable, prescribe the 
tuition fees aud course of studies therein, and so arrange and regulate the system 
of instruction in all of said schools that the transfer of pupils shall thereafter be 
from the primary directly into the secondary and thence into the union school ; 
and for this purpose, and for the organization, government and regulation of said 
secondary schools, said board shall have all such powers as are hereinbefore 
conferred upon them in respect to said primary and union schools and their dis- 
tricts and property. 



[ Ckap. 11, Laws of 1850.] 

§ 2. " The Board of Education for the village of Lockport " is hereby aptho- 
rized to increase the rates of tuition fees in the union school under its charge and 
to graduate the same according to the branches of instruction pursued. 

§ 3. Said board of education is hereby authorized to appoint a superintendent 
of the schools under its charge, with such powers and duties and compensation as 
said board shall prescribe. 

§ 4. From and after the first day of April next, so long as the common schools 
of this state shall be free, the said board of education shall cause each of the 
secondary schools under its charge to be taught by a competent male teacher, or 
a male and female teacher, and the usual common school studies shall be fi-ee; 
but for the time prior to the said first day of April next, said board i^aay collect 
tuition fees for instruction therein, as well as in the union school, as theyliave here- 
tofore done ; and such studies shall be taught in said union school as said board 
may prescribe. 

§ 5. Said board shall not raise by tax, upon the property in the union school 
district, any money for the salaries of teachers in the union school district which 
shall accrue after the first day of April next. 

§ 6. The acts and doings of said board of education, in accordance with the 
provisions of their act of incorporation, since the act entitled " An act establish- 
ing free schools throughout the state," passed March 26, 1849, took effect, {ire 
hereby ratified and confirmed. 

§ 7. The public money which shall be apportioned to the districts included in 
the said union school district shall be paid to said board, and be applied by 
them to teachers' wages, in the several schools in their charge in said district, in 
proportion to the average number of scholars pursuing common school studies in 
each of said schools. The annual report of the receipts and expenditures, required 
to be published by said board, shall specify all sums received, and from whom, 
and all persons to whom payments were made, and the general character of the 
demands paid. 

Upon the application of said board of education to " the regents of the univer- 
sity of the State of New- York," said regents may acknowledge and declare said 
union school to be an academy ; and it shall thereafter be an academy, subject 
to and to be governed by the provisions of the act authorizing said union school, 
and subject to such rules and regulations as said regents may prescribe. 



[Code.] 51 



402 LYONS— MEDINA. 



DISTRICT No. 6, IN LYONS, WAYNE COUNTY. 

Chapter 129, Laws of 1856, creates nine persons therein named, and their suc- 
cessors in office, as trustees of District No. 6, a corporation by the name of " Tho 
Board of Education for the village of Lyons." It confers upon such board substan- 
tially the same powers as those given by the preceding law to the board of educa- 
tion for the village of Lockport, and conforms so closely to the provisions of that act 
as to render it unnecessary for the purposes of the general reader to repeat them. 
Those charged with any duty under it will, of course, consult the Session Laws 
of 1856. 



MEDINA. 
[ Laws of 1849, chap. 286, as amended hy chap. 381, Laws of 1850. ] 

Section 1. There shall hereafter be elected in school district number twelve, 
formed partly out of the town of Ridgeway and partly out of the town of Shelby, 
in the county of Orleans, and lying principally within the village of Medina, in 
the manner now provided by law, three trustees, who shall respectively hold their 
offices three years. Christopher Whaley, Silas M. Burroughs, John Eyan, Daniel 
Starr, Isaac W. Swan and Archibald Servoss are hereby appointed trustees of 
said district, and shall respectively hold said office as follows, namely : the term 
of office of Christopher Whalej' and Silas M. Burroughs shall expire at the same 
time that the term of office of Roswell Starr, as trustee of said district, shall 
expire ; the term of office of John Ryan and Daniel Starr shall expire at the 
same time that the term of office of Isaac K. Burroughs, as trustee of said dis- 
trict, shall exjpire ; and the term of office of Isaac W. Swan and Archibald Servoss 
shall expire at the same time that the term of office of Nathan Bancroft, as trustee 
of said district, shall expire. 

§ 2. The trustees of said district, and their successors in office, shall constitute 
a board of education for said district ; and, for the purposes of this act, in addition 
to the present powers and duties of trustees, are hereby constituted a body politic 
and corporate, by the name and style of " The Board of Education of the village 
of Medina;" and said corporation shall have power to establish and organize a 
classical school in said village, to be known by the name of " The Medina 
Academy," and such classical school shall be subject to all laws and regulations 
applicable to other incorporated academies of this state, and shall be entitled to 
share in the distribution of the moneys of the literature fund, upon the same terms 
as other academies of this state ; and the regents of the university shall recognize 
said academy as such, as soon as the required sum^of money shall be expended in 
buildings and competent teachers employed therein. 

§ 3. Said board of education shall appoint one of their number president of 
said board, who shall preside at the meetings of said board when present ; when 
absent a president pro tempore shall be appointed in his stead. They shall also 
appoint one of their nvimber secretary, who shall record all the acts, doings and 
resolutions of said board ; and in the absence of the secretary a secretary pro 
tempore shall be appointed to discharge such duties. They shall also appoint a 
collector, librarian and treasurer of said district, who shall respectively hold their 
offices one year from their appointment, and until others are appointed in their 
places, unless sooner removed by said board ; such collector, librarian and 
treasurer shall each, within ten days after notice of their appointment in writing, 
and before entering upon the duties of their office, execute and deliver to said 
board of education a bond, in such penalty and with such sureties as said board 
may require, conditioned for the faithful discharge of the duties of his office. In 



MEDINA. 403 

case such bond shall not be given within ten days after receiving such notice, such 
ofBce shall thereby become vacated, and said board of education shall thereupon 
make an appointment to supply such vacancy. 

§ 4. The said board of education shall have power to fill any vacancy which 
may happen by reason of the death or removal from the said district of any 
member of said board, and the officer so appointed shall hold his office for the 
unexpired time of the person to supply whose place he shall be so appointed. 

§ 5. Said board of education shall possess all the powers and be subject to all 
the duties, in respect to said district, that the trustees of common schools now 
possess or are subject to, and such other powers and duties as are given or imposed 
by this act. 

§ 6. The taxable inhabitants of said district, at any annual, special or adjourned 
meeting legally held, may vote to raise such sum of money as they shall deem 
expedient for the purpose of purchasing a site and building a school-house in said 
district, or for the purpose of purchasing any suitable building for such purpose, 
and direct the trustees to cause the same to be levied and raised by instalments, 
and make out a tax for the collection of the same as often as such instalments 
shall become due ; and the legal voters at any such meeting are authorized to fix 
the compensation for collecting and paying over to the said board of education 
the amount so levied. 

§ 7. The inhabitants of said district shall have no power to rescind the vote to 
raise such sum of money, at any subsequent meeting, unless the same be done 
within ten days thereafter ; nor shall they have power to reduce the amount of 
the same after the expiration of ten days from the time the tax was first levied, 
but may remit such sum as shall remain unappropriated after paying for the site 
and erection of the house or purchase of suitable building. 

§ 8. The said board of education are hereby authorized to obtain by loan the 
whole or any part of the money legally voted by said district, and secure the 
payment of the same by their ofBcial bond. 

§ 9. The comptroller of this state is hereby authorized and directed to loan to 
the said board of education such sum as the said board of education shall certify 
to said comptroller to have been voted by the inhabitants of said district, in 
pursuance of this act, not exceeding the sum of five thousand dollars, out of the 
moneys in the treasury belonging to the capital of the common school fund, and 
for the purpose of purchasing a site and erecting or purchasing a suitable building 
for a school-house in said district ; and the money when loaned shall be charged 
upon the books of the comptroller to said district, and the same shall be paid over 
to said board of education, to be applied by them for the purpose of purchasing 
a site and erecting or purchasing a school-house for said district. 

§ 10. The sum so loaned shall be paid to the comptroller of this state, in annual 
instalments thereafter, as determined by the vote of said district raising such sum 
of money, with annual interest thereon. 

§ 11. The said board of education are hereby authorized and empowered to 
sell at public auction, to the highest bidder, the school-house and site thereof 
belonging to said district, by giving public notice, to be posted in ten public places 
in said district ten days previous to such sale, and apply the proceeds arising 
from such sale towards purchasing a site and erecting a school-house in said 
district, or to such other purpose as said district shall direct ; such sale may be 
made upon such terms of credit as said board of education shall determine upon, 
and a bond and mortgage taken by said board for the whole or any part of the 
purchase money or price for which said site and house may be sold, and such 
bond and mortgage may be sold and assigned by said board at par, for money to 
De applied by them as herein provided. 

§ 12. The said board of education are hereby authorized and empowered to 
make such by-laws and regulations as they may deem necessary to secure the 
prosperity, order and government of said school, and divide the same into primary 
and higher departments, and regulate the transfer of scholars from one depart- 
ment to the other, and provide suitable instructors for each department, direct 
what text books shall be used in the same, purchase fuel and other necessaries 



404 MEDINA. 

for the use of the school or schools in said district, and all contracts made by 
them in their official capacity shall be binding upon them and their successors 
in office ; to fix and regulate the terms of tuition fees in said primary and other 
higher branches in said school or schools ; to sue for and collect in their corpo- 
rate name any sum of money due to said district ; to receive and apply to the 
uses of said school or schools, or any department thereof, any gift, legacy, be- 
quest or annuities given or bequeathed to said board, and apply the same accord- 
ing to the instructions of the donor or testator ; to take and hold any real estate 
given or bequeathed to said board for the purposes of said school or schools, or 
any department thereof, and apply the same, or the interest or proceeds thereof, 
according to the terms and instructions of the donor or testator ; to have in all 
respects the superintendence, supervision, management and control of said 
school or schools, or any department thereof, and to hire, pay and discharge 
any teacher or teachers employed by them in said school or department thereof. 

§ 13. Said board of education shall in all respects be subject to the restrictions 
and control of the superintendents of common schools of the town, county and 
state, in the same manner as the common schools in this state are subject. 

§ 14. Said board of education shall have power and are hereby authorized to 
receive into said academy, and cause to be instructed therein, any pupil or pupils 
residing in or out of said district, and to regulate and establish the terms of 
tuition fees of such resident or non-resident pupils ; and said board of education 
shall have power to regulate the tuition fees and rates of charges for instruction 
in the higher English and classical departments of said academy, and shall have 
power to make such application of the money raised for the support of common 
schools in said district, for the payment of teachers' wages, as said board shall 
determine, and may divide and apportion the same, in such manner as said board 
shall deem best, to pay the salaries of teachers employed in said academy, or the 
elementary English schools connected therewith or maintained in said district 
under their supervision. The rates of tuition in the elementary English branches, 
in the schools maintained in said district, shall be subject to the general laws 
relating to common schools; and, after applying such portion of the money 
received in said district as said board shall determine, towards the support of 
such elementary English departments, such sum, not to be less than one-half of 
all the moneys received in said district for the support of common schools 
therein, the additional sum required to pay teachers" wages and provide fuel and 
other contingent expenses necessary to the support of such elementary schools, 
shall be estimated, assessed, collected and applied in the manner provided in 
chapter one hundred and forty and four hundred and four of the Session Laws of 
eighteen hundred and forty-nine, or in such other manner as shall be hereafter 
provided by law for the support of common schools. 

§ 15. All moneys raised in said district for the purposes of said school, and all 
moneys to be received by such district from the common school fund or other 
source, shall be annually paid to the said board of education, and be applied by 
them for the uses of said school or schools according to law. 

§ 16. The members of said board of education, before receiving any vnoneys 
belonging to said district, shall severally execute to the town superintendent of 
common schools of the town of Ridgeway their separate bonds, with two suffi- 
cient sureties, to be approved by said town superintendent, in a penalty at least 
double the amount to be expended by them for the benefit of said school during 
the next ensuing year, conditioned that such trustee giving such bond will faith- 
fully account for the expenditure of all moneys he shall receive for said district, 
and pay over the balance remaining in his hands at the time of the expiration of 
his office to the other trustees ; and the district at any legal meeting thereof may 
require the penalty of such bond to be increased, or additional security to be 
given by either or all the trustees, if they shall deem the same insxifficient ; and 
any trustee, treasurer of said district, or member of said board, M'ho shall apply 
any moneys belonging to said district to his own use, shall be deemed guilty of 
embezzlement. 



LODI— OWEGO— NEWBURGH. 406 

LODI AND OWEGO. 
[ Laws of 1846, chap. 207. ] 

Section 1. The trustees of school district number one, formed from the towns 
of Persia and Perrysburgh, in the county of Cattaraugus, and the town of Col- 
lins, in the county of Erie, known as the " Lodi union school district," are 
hereby authorized, if the inliabitants of said district shall at any regular school 
district meeting so direct, to make thereafter, and until the said inhabitants shall 
in like manner otherwise direct, separate and distinct rate bills for the payment 
of the wages of the teachers in the primary and in the higher departments of the 
school kept in the said district ; provided that the manner in which such rate 
bills shall be made shall have been determined by such regular school district 
meeting aforesaid. 

§ 2. The provisions of the preceding section of this act shall also apply to school 
district number one, in the village of Owego, in the county of Tioga, so far as the 
same shall be applicable to said district. 



NEWBURGH. 
[Laws of 1852, chap. 156.] 

Section 1. Every disti'ict or common school located in the village of Newburgh, 
including the "Newburgh High School," and every school which may hereafter 
be located in said village under this act, shall be free to all children between the 
ages of four and twenty-one years residing in said village. 

§ 2. All that part of the town of Newburgh included within the bounds of the 
corporation of the village of Newburgh shall hereafter constitute one common 
school district. There shall be elected in said village nine trustees of common 
schools, as soon after the passage of this act as the trustees of the village can 
order an election for that purpose, after giving two weeks' notice in all the papers 
of said village of the time and place of holding such election. The nine trustees 
then elected, and their successors in office, shall constitute a board, to be styled 
" The Board of Education of the village of Newburgh," which shall be a corporate 
body in relation to all the powers and duties conferred upon them by this act. 
The term of office of three of said trustees shall expire on the second Wednesday 
after the annual charter election in said village, in the year one thousand eight 
hundred and fifty-three ; the term of three others of said trustees shall expire 
on the second Wednesday after the annual charter election in the year one thou- 
sand eight hundred and fifty-four, and the term of the remaining three on the 
■second AVednesday after the annual charter election in the year one thousand 
eight hundred and fifty-five. The term of office of the several members of said 
board shall be determined by lot at the first meeting of said board after their 
election. 

§ 3. The title of the school-houses, sites, lots, furniture, books, apparatus and 
appurtenances, and all other school property in said village in this act mentioned, 
shall be vested in said board of education, and the same shall not be subject to 
taxation for any purpose; and the said board of education, in its corporate capa- 
city, may take, hold and dispose of any real or personal estate transferred to it 
by gift, grant, bequest or devise, for the use of the common schools in said vil- 
lage (except that no real estate held by said board for school purposes shall be 
sold or disposed of without the consent of the trustees of the village first obtained, 
as hereinafter provided). 

§ 4. There shall be elected at the annual charter election of said village, in 
each year after the passage of this act, in the same manner as and upon the same 
ticket with the trustees and other officers of said village, three trustees of com- 



406 NEWBURGH. 

mon schools, to suppl j' the places of those whose terms are about to expire. The 
term of office of all trustees of common schools, elected pursuant to this act 
(except those first elected ), shall commence on the second Wednesday after such 
charter election, and continue three years. 

§ 5. The trustees of said village may appoint trustees of common schools to 
fill vacancies which may occur in said board of education from any other cause 
than the expiration of the term of office of those elected, and the removal from 
the village shall he deemed a resignation of the office of any trustee of common 
schools. The trustees so appointed shall hold their office till the second Wed- 
nesday after the next annual election; and at each annual election there shall be 
elected a trustee to supply the place of any person so appointed, or to supply any 
vacancy then existing, and the person thus elected shall serve out the unexpired 
term. 

§ 6. Any trustee of common schools in said village, elected under this act, may 
be removed from office by the trustees of said village for oflicial misconduct. 
But a written copy of the charges against such trustee shall be served upon him., 
and he shall be allowed an opportunity to refute any such charge of misconduct 
before removal. 

§ 7. The first meeting of the board of education shall be on the second Wed- 
nesday riext after their election, and the annual meeting of the board, there- 
after, shall be on the second Wednesday next after the annual charter election. 
A majority of the board shall form a quorum, and be competent to transact any 
business of said board. At the annual meeting of the board they shall elect one 
of their number president of the board, and whenever he shall be absent a presi- 
dent pro tempore may be appointed. The said trustees of common schools shall 
receive no compensation for their services. 

§ 8. The said board shall appoint a clerk, who may be one of their number, 
who shall hold his office during the pleasure of the board, and whose compensa- 
tion shall be fixed by the board. The said clerk shall keep a record of the pro- 
ceedings of the board, and perform such other duties as the board may prescribe ; 
the said record, or a transcript thereof certified by the president and clerk, shall 
be received in all courts as prima facie evidence of facts therein set forth ; and 
such records, and all the books, vouchers, accounts and papers of said board, 
shall at all times be subject to the inspection of the trustees of said village, and 
of any committee thereof. 

§ 9. The trustees of said village shall have the power, and it shall be their duty, 
to raise from time to time by tax, to be levied equally upon all the real and per- 
sonal property in said village which shall be liable for the ordinary village taxes, 
such sum or sums of money as the board of education shall deem necessary for 
any or all the following purposes : 

1. To purchase, lease or improve sites for school-houses ; 

2. To build, purchase, lease, enlarge, alter, improve and repair school-houses, . 
and their out-houses and appurtenances ; 

3. To purchase, exchange, improve and repair school apparatus, books, furni- 
ture and appendages ; 

4. To procure fuel and pay the contingent expenses of free schools, and the 
expense of school libraries of said village ; 

5. To pay the wages of teachers, due after the application of the public school 
moneys and all other moneys received by said board or under their control, and 
which may by law be appropriated and provided for that purpose. And the 
trustees of said village are authorized and directed, when necessary, to raise by 
loan, in anticipation of the taxes, the moneys so to be raised, collected and levied 
as aforesaid. The taxes, to be levied as aforesaid and collected by virtue of this 
act, shall be collected at the same time and in the same manner as other village 
taxes. 

§ 10. All moneys to be raised pursuant to the provisions of this act, and all 
school moneys by law appropriated to and provided for said village, shall be paid 
to the treasurer of the village of Newburgh, who, together with tlie sureties upon 
Jiis official bond, shall be accountable therefor in the same maimer as for other 



NEWBURGH. 407 

moneys of said callage ; the said treasurer shall be liable to the same penalties 
for any official misconduct in relation to other moneys in said village. Such 
moneys shall be deposited with such treasurer to the credit of said board of edu- 
cation, and shall be drawn only bj' a resolution of said board, by drafts drawn 
by the president and countersigned by the clerk, payable to the order of the per- 
son or persons entitled to receive such moneys ; and said treasurer shall keep the 
funds received by him, under this act, separate and distinct from any other funds. 
§ 11. The said board shall have power, and it shall be its duty: 

1. To establish and organize, in said village, such and so many free schools 
(including the common schools and the Newburgh high school exisiting therein), 
and a school for colored children, as said board shall deem requisite and expedi- 
ent, and to alter and discontinue the same at its discretion ; 

2. To hire school-houses and rooms for the purpose of free schools, and im- 
prove them ; 

3. To alter, improve and repair school-houses and appurtenances, as they may 
deem advisable ; 

4. To purchase, exchange, improve and repair school apparatus, books, furni- 
ture and appendages, and to defray their contingent expenses, and the expense 
of the school libraries ; 

5. To have the custody and safe keeping of the school-houses, out-houses, 
books, furniture and appendages, and to see that the ordinances of the trustees 
of the village in relation thereto are observed ; 

6. To contract with, license and employ all necessary teachers, and at their 
pleasure to remove them ; 

7. To pay the wages of such teachers out of the moneys appropriated and 
provided by law for that purpose, so far as the same shall be sufficient, and the 
residue thereof from the money authorized to be raised for that purpose, by sec- 
tion nine of this act, by tax upon the village ; 

8. To defray the necessarj'- contingent expenses of the board, including an 
annual salary to the clerk, provided the account of such expenses shall first be 
audited and allowed by the trustees of the village ; 

9. To expend all moneys raised by this act for building school-houses, pur- 
chasing sites, and other purposes for which the same may be raised, in such 
manner as they may deem proper ; 

10. To have in all respects the superintendence, supervision and management 
of the common schools in said village, and from time to time to adopt, alter, 
modify and repeal, as they may deem expedient, rules and regulations for their 
organization, government and instruction, for the reception of pupils and their 
transfer from one school to another, for their advancement from class to class, as 
their degree of scholarship may warrant, and, generally, for the promotion of 
their good order, prosperity and public utility ; 

11. Whenever, in the opinion of the board, it maj' be advisable to sell any of the 
school-houses, lots or sites, to report the same to the trustees of the village, and, 
with the consent of the trustees of the village, to sell and dispose of such school- 
houses, lots or site to the best possible advantage; 

12. To determine and certify to the trustees of the village, on or before the first 
'day of February in each year, the sums in their opinion necessary or proper to 
be raised under the ninth section of this act, specifying the sums, to be for the 
year commencing on the first day of March thereafter, for each of the purposes 
therein mentioned and the reasons therefor. 

§ 12. The board of education shall have a regular meeting, at least once in each 
quarter, and shall appoint at such meetings one or more committees, each to 
consist of not less than two of their number, to visit all the schools in said 
village, and such committee shall visit all said schools at least twice in each 
quarter. 

§ 13. The said board of education shall have power to allow the children of 
persons not resident within the village to attend any of the free schools of said 
village, under the care and control of said board, upon such terms as said board 
shall by resolution prescribe, fixing the tuition which shall be paid therefor. 



408 NEWBURGH. 

§ 14. It shall be the duty of said board, in all their expenditures and contracts, 
to have reference to the amount of moneys which shall be subject to their order 
during the current year, and not to exceed that amount. 

§ 15. The said board of education shall be trustees of the school library or 
libraries in said village, and all the provisions of law which now are or hereafter 
may be passed relative to district school libraries shall apply to said board ; they 
shall also be vested with the same discretion as to the disposition of the moneys, 
appropiated by any law of this state for the purchase of libraries, which is therein 
conferred upon the inhabitants of school districts. It shall be the duty of said 
board, in their discretion, to provide a library room or rooms in the several schools 
in said village, and the necflfcsary furniture therefor. The clerk of the board shall 
be the general librarian. The board shall also appoint one or more librarians to 
have the care of the books, and to superintend the letting out and return thereof. 
The several local librarians shall from time to time inform the general librarian 
of the state and condition of their libraries ; and the said board, or the general 
librarian under the direction of said board, may make all purchases of books 
for the libraries and provide for their equitable distribution among the several 
schools, and exchange or cause to be repaired the damaged books belonging 
thereto, and also to sell any books which may be deemed useless or of improper 
character, and apply the proceeds to the purchase of other books for said 
libraries, and unite the libraries so as to have but one, should they deem it best 
so to do. 

8 16. It shall be the duty of said board, at least twenty days before the annual 
charter election in each year, to prepare and report to the trustees of the village 
a true and correct statement of the receipts and disbursements of moneys under 
and in pursuance of the provisions of this act during the preceding year, in which 
account shall be stated; under appropriate heads : 

1. The moneys raised by the trustees of the village tinder the ninth section of 
this act ; 

2. The school moneys received by the treasurer of the village from the county 
treasurer ; 

3. The moneys received by the board under the third section of this act ; 

4. All other moneys received by the treasurer, subject to the order of the board, 
sjiecifying the sources ; 

5. The manner in which such sums of moneys shall have expended, specifying 
the amount paid under each head of expenditure ; 

And the said board shall cause the same to be published, in at least two papers 
published in said village, ten days before such election. 

§ 17. The trustees of the said village shall have the power to pass such ordi- 
nances and regulations as the said board of education may report as necessary 
and proper for the protection, safe keeping, care and preservation of the school- 
houses, lots, sites, appurtenances and appendages, libraries, and all necessary 
property belonging to or connected with the schools in said village ; and to 
impose proper penalties for the violation thereof, subject to the restrictions and 
limitations contained in the act to incorporate the said village; and all such 
penalties shall be collected in the same manner that the penalties for the violation 
of the village ordinances are by law collected, and, when collected, shall be paid 
to the treasurer of the village, and be subject to the order of the board of educa- 
tion, in the same manner as other moneys raised pursuant to the provisions of 
this act. 

§ 18. It shall be the duty of the trustees, within fifteen days after receiving the 
certificate of the board of education, required by the eleventh section of this act, 
of the sums necessary or^proper to be raised under the ninth section of this act, 
to certify to said board of education that the amount will be raised by them for the 
year, commencing on the first of March thereafter, for the purpose mentioned in said 
ninth section, distinguishing between the amount to be raised for teachers' wages 
and contingent expenses, and the amount to be raised for the repair of school- 
houses, which amounts shall be subject to the disposal of the board of education. 

§ 19. All moneys required to be raised by virtue of this act, or received by the 



NEWTOWN. 409 

said village for or on account of common schools, except such sums as are raised 
for the erection of school-houses and purchase of sites therefor, shall be deposited 
for the safe keeping thereof with the treasurer of said vUlage, to the credit of 
said board of education, and shall be drawn out, in pursuance of a resolution or 
resolutions of the said board, by drafts drawn by the president and countersigned 
by the clerk of said village, payable to the order of the person or persons entitled 
to receive such moneys ; and said treasurer shall keep the funds, authorized by 
this act to be received by him, separate and distinct from any other fund which 
he is or may by law be authorized to receive. 

§ 20. It shall be the duty of the clerk of said village, immediately after the 
election of any person as a trustee of common schools, personally or in writing to 
notify him of his election, and if any such person shall not, within ten days after 
receiving such notice of his election, take and subscribe the constitutional oath, 
and file the same with the clerk of said village, the trustees of said village may 
consider it a refusal to serve, and proceed to supply the vacancy occasioned by 
such refusal; and the person so refusing shall forfeit and pay to the village 
treasurer, for the benefit of the tuition fund, a penalty of ten dollars. 

§ 21. It shall be the duty of the several district schools in the village of New- 
burgh, within three months from the pas.sage of this act, to transfer and convey 
to said board of education all school-houses, sites, lots and all other school pro- 
perty, of whatever name and description, and to place in the care of the board of 
education all school district records, account books, vouchers, contracts, papers 
and other school property ; and the said school officers of the said village, and the 
several school districts thereof, shall continue in office until the unfinished busi- 
ness of said districts shall have been finally closed up and settled, not exceeding 
three months after the passage of this act, with all the power and duties now by 
law imposed upon them, for the purpose of closing such unfinished business. 

§ 22. The said board of education shall annually make a report of the number 
of children, residing in said village, to the superintendent of common schools in 
the town of Newburgh, in the form and within the time required by law of trus- 
tees of common school districts ; and the said superintendent shall pay over, whep 
received, to the said board of education, the public moneys apportioned to said 
school district ( which district in said apportionment shall be considered as three 
districts ), to be by them applied under the provisions of this act. 

§ 23. The act entitled " An act to establish a high school at Newburgh," passed 
April 23, 1829, and all other acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act, are 
hereby repealed. 



NEWTOWN, 
f LoAvs of 1850, chap. 60. ] 

Section 1. School district number three, in the town of Newtown, in the county 
of Queens, shall form a permanent school district, and shall not be subject to 
alteration by the town superintendent of common schools for the town in which 
said district is situated. 

§ 2. The said district shall be under the direction of a board, to be styled " The 
Board of Education," which board shall consist of five members, three or more 
of whom shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. John B. 
Reboul, Daniel R. Remsen, Roe H. Smith, Nathaniel Filbey and Albert 0. Witte- 
more shall compose the first board of education, and shall hold their office from 
one to five years, that is to say, one shall go out of office in each year, and in the 
order in which their names stand recorded in this section. 

§ 3. At the annual meeting of said district, in each j'ear, there shall be elected 
for five years one member of said board of education, who shall be a resident 
and taxable inhabitant of said district. Said election, and all other elections 
provided for by this act, shall be held by three inspectors, who shall be appointed 
by the board of education at least thirty days preceding such election, and shall 

[Code.] 52 



410 NEWTOWN. 

"be by ballot, and conducted in the same manner as the annual election of village 
officers. 

§ 4. The said board of education maj' make all necessary by-laws for their 
government ; they shall liave the entire control and management of all the common 
schools within the said district, and all the property belonging to the same ; and 
they shall have and possess, within the said district, all the rights, powers and 
authority of town superintendent of common schools, and they shall provide for 
keeping a school in said district at least six months in each year, and as much 
longer as may be practicable. They may appoint a collector, with all the jjowers 
and duties of a district collector, or may employ the town or village collector for 
that purpose; and such collector shall collect and pay over the school moneys 
assessed upon said district to the treasurer of the board of education, in the same 
manner and under the same conditions as is imposed by the laws of the town or 
village of which he is such collector. They shall require two of the members of 
said board to visit- each school in said district at least once in each week, to 
render such assistance to the teachers and advice to the pupils as may be neces- 
sary, and to see that the regulations are rigidly adhered to. 

§ 5. The said board of eilueation are hereby authorized and empowered to 
raise a sum, not exceeding one thousand dollars, by tax on said district, to be 
levied and collected in the same manner as taxes are authorized by law to be 
levied and collected in the towns of this state; and said board of education are 
also hereby authorized and empow'ered to raise the sum of three thousand and 
five hundred dollars, by a loan, which sums are to be expended in the erection 
of a school-house, in said district, and furniture for the same ; such loan to be 
secured by a bond and a mortgage upon the public school property of said district, 
which bond and mortgage shall be executed by said board of education, in their 
official capacity, under their hands and a common seal to be provided by them. 
Said loan shall be paid off in annual instalments of five hundred dollars each; 
and the first of said instalments shall be paid in three years after the date of said 
bond and mortgage. Said board is also authorized and empowered to raise such 
additional sum, from time to time, by tax on said district, to be levied and col- 
lected in the same manner as taxes are authorized by law to be levied and col- 
lected in towns of this state, as may be necessary to pay the accruing interest 
on said loan and the said instalments thereof, and also such amount as they may 
deem proper for fees for collection, not exceeding five per cent on the amount, 
{As amended by chap. 398 of 1851.) 

§ 6. The said board of education are hereby authorized and directed to levy 
and collect by tax, in each year, upon all the taxable property and inhabitants, 
such sum as may be necessary, not exceeding in amount one-fifth of one per cent 
on the value of such taxable property, as the same shall be assessed by the 
assessors of the town of Newtown ; and the said board shall add, to their warrant 
for collection of such taxes, such amount as they may deem proper for fees for 
collection, not exceeding five per cent on tlie amount. 

§ 7. The town superintendent of common schools of the town of Newtown shall 
pay over to the treasurer of the board of education all the public moneys to 
which said district number three shall be entitled, for school purposes. 

§ 8. The said board of education shall call an annual district meeting, at such 
time in the year as they may think proper, and submit tliereto a full report, in 
writing, of their doings as such board ; and shall state therein the number and 
condition of the schools in said district under their charge, and the number of 
scholars attending the same, the studies pursued, the amount of moneys received 
from the state, as well as the amount raised in the district for school purposes, 
and the expenditure of the same, and, generally, all the particulars relating to 
the schools in said district; which report may, if the said board think proper, be 
published in pamphlet form, or in some newspaper published in the county. 

§ 9. The board of education shall have entire control and charge of the district 
library ; they may employ a librarian, make such additions to the library and 
such regulations in relation thereto, as they may deem necessary or proper. 



NEW-YORK. 411 

§ 10. A school for colored children may be organized as a district school, and 
be supported as the other schools in said district are under this act. 

§ 11. Whenever the said board of education shall deem it necessary to erect 
one or more school-houses in said district, they shall submit the plans and esti- 
mated cost of such building to the electors of such district, at a special meeting 
called for that purpose, and if a majority of such electors present shall vote in 
favor of the same, the said board may proceed to erect said school-house or 
houses ; and if the sums authorized to be raised by sections five and six of this 
act shall be insufficient to pay the cost of such building, then the said board 
may raise an additional sum, not exceeding five hundred dollars, to be levied and 
collected as provided for in sections five and six of this act, to be expended in 
defraying such cost. 

§ 12. The said board of education may call special meetings of said district 
whenever they may deem it necessary ; and whenever a special meeting shall be 
called, notices of it shall be posted up in five public places in said district, at least 
one week previous to said meeting ; and no business shall be transacted at such 
meetings except that stated in the notice calling the same. 

§ 13. All laws and parts of laws inconsistent with this act are hereby repealed. 
50 far as they relate to district number three, in the town of Newtown, county 
of Queens. 



CITY OF NEAV-YORK, 

[ Laivs of 1851, chap. 386, as amended by chap. 301 of 1853, chap. 101 o/1854 
and chap. 267 of 1854.] 

OP SCHOOL OFFICERS AND THEIR ELECTION. 

Section 1. There shall be two commissioners, two inspectors and eight trustees 
of common schools in each of the wards of the city of New- York, who shall be 
known as the school officers of the ward. 

At every general election there shall be elected in each of the said wards one 
inspector and two trustees of common schools, who shall take office on the first 
day of January next succeeding their election, and hold the same for the following 
terms : the commissioner and inspector for two years each, and the trustees for 
four years each. 

The commissioners, inspectors and trustees of common schools, in office, shall 
continue to hold their offices until the first day of January, one thousand eight 
hundred and fifty-five, and until the expiration of the terms for which they were 
elected by the people, as determined by lot, or for which they were appointed by 
the Public School Society ; and the trustees elected by the people previous to 
the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, shall also 
continue in office until the thirty-first day of December next succeeding the expi- 
ration of the terms for which they were respectively elected ; provided, however, 
that the term of office of every trustee elected before the first day of January, 
one thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, shall cease and terminate on or before 
the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight. 

In the case of two or more trustees, chosen at the same election in any ward, 
such trustees shall cease to hold office as follows : those elected before the first 
day of January, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, on the thirty-first 
day of December next succeeding the expiration of their respective terms, as 
legally determined by lot or otherwise ; and those elected after said first day of 
January, at the expiration of their respective terms, as legally determined by lot 
or otherwise, unless otherwise provided by this act ; and in every case in which 
there has not been such a legal determination of terms, the board of education 
shall, on the first Wednesday in May, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, 
determine by lot and declare the term for which each of the trustees shall serve. 



412 NEW-YORK. 

The board of education shall, on or before the first day of June, one thousand 
eight hundred and fifty four, prepare and cause to be filed in the office of the 
clerk of the said board a list of all the school officers then in office, stating which 
of them weie elected by the people, which of them were appointed by the Public 
School Society, and which of them were appointed by the board of education to 
fill vacancies, and also the times at which the said school officers will respectively 
cease to hold their offices, which list shall be prima facie evidence in respect to 
the matters hereby required to be stated therein. 

The school officers previously appointed to fill vacancies shall continue in 
office until the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, 
and no longer ; and every person thereafter appointed to fill a vacancy in a school 
office shall hold his office until the first day of January next succeeding the time 
of his appointment and no longer. 

Every vacancy in the office of a commissioner, inspector or trustee of common 
schools, occurring more than twenty days previous to any general election, and 
every person chosen to fill a vacancy, shall take office on the first day of January 
next succeeding the election, and hold the same for the residue of the term; and 
in every such case, the person voted for to fill a vacancy shall be designated in 
the ballot by the words "to fill vacancy," written or printed immediately over 
his name, and shall also be so designated in the returns of the election ; and if 
there be more than one vacancy in the office of trustee in any ward, to be filled at 
the same election, each person voted for to fill a vacancy shall be designated, on 
the ballot and in the returns, by adding the number of years for which he is to 
serve to the words " to fill vacancy ;" so that the designation will read, " to fill 
vacancy of years." 

In case in any ward the number of trustees in office shall at any time be less 
than eight, the board of education shall have power, upon the nomination of the 
school officers of the ward, to appoint as many trustees as will make, including 
the trustees previously in office, eight trustees for the ward ; but the trustees so 
appointed shall cease to hold office on the first day of January nest ensuing, and 
their successors shall be chosen, at the next general election, to serve for such 
number of years, respectively, as the board of education may designate. 

The board of education shall, at least fifteen days previous to every general 
election, cause to be filed in the office of the clerk of the common council a list 
of the school offices to be filled at the next general election, stating the names of 
the officers whose term will expire ; and also, in each case of an unexpired term 
in which a vacancy is to be filled, stating the number of years which the person 
elected to fill the same will be entitled to serve. 

The elections held by virtue of this act shall be subject to the same laws and 
regulations, in all respects, as those which govern the general elections in said 
city. The ballots for school officers shall be endorsed " common schools, " and 
deposited in a separate box to be provided therefor. 

Every school officer shall, before entering on the duties of his office, and within 
fifteen days after the commencement of the term for which he is elected, or from 
the time of being notified of his appointment to fill a vacancy, take and subscribe 
before the clerk of the board of education the oath prescribed by the constitu- 
tion of this state. And any school office, to which any person who shall omit to 
take the said oath within the time and in the manner above prescribed may have 
been elected or appointed in said city, shall be considered as vacant from and 
after the expiration of said fifteen days, and the vacancy shall thereupon be filled 
in the manner in which other vacancies in school offices are filled. 

The board of education shall be judges of the election ov appointment and 
qualification of its members. 

Every school officer shall, at the time of his election or appointment, be a resi- 
dent of the ward for which he is elected or appointed ; and the board of school 
officers of any ward shall have power to declare vacant the office of any commis- 
sioner, inspector or trustee, elected b}^ the people or appointed by the board of 
education, who shall have removed from the ward; and it shall be the duty of 
such board of school officers to consider the subject and determine whether or 



NEW-YORK. 413 

not tie seat of the oflScer who shall have removed from the ward shall be declared 
vacant. 



OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION ITS POWERS AND DUTIES, 

§ 2. The commissioners of common schools shall constitute a board of education 
for the city and county of New-York. They shall meet on the second Wednesday 
of January, in each year, for the purpose of organization, and thereafter for the 
transaction of business as often as they may determine ; they shall elect one of 
their number president, and shall appoint a clerk, and as many assistant clerks 
and other officers for the transaction of the business of the board as may be 
necessary, who shall severally hold their offices during the pleasure of the board, 
and whose respective duties, powers and compensation shall be regulated and 
determined by the board. 

The board of education shall have power : 

1. To take and hold property, both real and personal, devised or transferred to 
it for the purposes of public education in the city of New-York ; 

2. To appoint a city superintendent of schools, and one or more assistant 
superintendents, and also a superintendent of school buildings, whose respective 
duties, powers, salaries and terms of office, except as herein otherwise provided, 
shall be regulated and determined by the board of education, and to employ, 
under the superintendent of school buildings, necessary workmen, and provide 
necessary materials for repairing, altering and enlarging school or other buildings; 
but this provision shall not be construed to compel the trustees of any ward to 
use or einploj' such workmen or materials for any purpose whatever ; 

3. On the nomination of the school officers of any ward to fill vacancies in 
school offices which may occur in such ward between the general elections, and, 
upon the presentation of a majority of the school officers of any ward, to remove 
any inspector of common schools for such ward who shall be proven to the 
satisfaction of the board of education to have wilfully, or without good cause, 
neglected to perform any duty imposed upon him by this act ; and it shall be the 
duty of the said board to remove from oflBce any commissioner, inspector or 
trustee who shall be or become directly or indirectly interested, by way of com- 
mission or otherwise, in any contract or undertaking for the furnishing of any 
supplies of books or materials, or for the performing of any labor or work for 
any of the schools or buildings under its charge ; 

4. To establish new schools, as hereinafter provided ; 

5. To draw from the moneys which shall be raised for the purpose of public 
education such sums as may be required for the purpose of defraying the 
necessary incidental expenses of the board, and such further sums as may be 
required for the payment of the salaries of such clerks and other officers as may 
be appointed by virtue of the authority vested in the board by this act, and of 
such other expenses as may be necessarily incurred by the board in pursuance of 
the provisions of this act ; 

6. To visit and examine the schools subject to the provisions of this act; 

7. To make rules of order and by-laws for the government of the board, its 
members and committees, and general regulations to secure' proper economy and 
accountability in the expenditure of the school moneys ; 

8. To continue the existing free academy and organize a similar institution for 
females ; and if any similar institution is organized by the board of education, 
all the provisions of this act, relative to the free academy, shall apply to each and 
every one of the said institutions, now existing or hereafter established, as fully, 
completely and distinctly as they could or would if it was the only institution of 
the kind ; to distinguish each existing and future institution by an appropriate 
title ; and to purchase, erect, or lease sites and buildings for each and all of the 
said institutions, provided that no additional institution shall be authorized or 
organized by the board of education, unless a majority of the whole number of 
members of the said board shall vote in favor thereof- 



414 NEW-YORK. 

9. To use and control the premises known as the hall of the board of educa- 
tion, at the corner of Grand and Elm streets, to direct the purposes for which the 
same may be occupied, and to make all the repairs, alterations and additions in 
and to the same which the board may deem advisable, and to provide such 
additional sites and buildings as may be necessary for the purposes of this act, 
the title of which shall, in all cases, be vested in the mayor, aldermen and com- 
monalty of the city of New-York ; 

10. To dispose of such personal property, used in the school or other buildings 
under the charge of the board, as the trustees or committees having the immediate 
charge thereof shall certify is no longer required for use therein ; and all moneys 
realized by the sale of any such property shall be paid into the city treasury, for 
the same purposes as the moneys raised under the sixteenth section of this act ; 

11. And for the purposes of this act, the said board shall possess the pq,wers 
and privileges of a corporation. 

§ 3. It shall be the duty of the board of education : 

1. On or before the fifteenth day of November, in each year, to report to the 
board of supervisors of said city and county an estimate of the amount, over and 
above the sum specified in the fifteenth section of this act, which will be required 
during the year for the purpose of meeting the current annual expenses of public 
instruction in said city for purchasing, leasing and procuring sites ; for erecting 
buildings, and for furnishing, fitting up, altering, enlarging and repairing the 
buildings and premises under their charge ; for the support of schools which shall 
have been organized since the last annual apportionment of the school moneys 
made by the board, and of such further sum or sums as may be necessary for any 
of the purposes authorized by this act ; but the aggregate amount so reported 
shall not exceed the sum of four dollars for each pupil who shall have actually 
attended and been taught the preceding year in the schools entitled to participate 
in the apportionment ; 

2. To apportion all the school moneys, which shall have been raised for the 
purpose of meeting the current annual expenses of public instruction, to the 
schools entitled to participate therein by the provisions of this act ; 

3. To file with the chamberlain of said city, oh or before the first Monday of 
April in each year, a copy of their apportionment, stating the amount apportioned 
to the schools under the charge of the board of education, and to the trustees, 
managers and directors of the several schools enumerated in this act ; 

4. To continue to furnish through the free academy the benefit of education 
gratuitously, to persons who have been pupils in the common schools of the said 
city and county, for a period of time to be regulated by the board of education, 
not less, than one year ; 

6. To supervise, manage and govern said free academy, and make all needful 
rules and reglations therefor ; fix the number and compensation of teachers and 
others to be employed therein ; prescribe the preliminary examination, and the 
terms and conditions on which pupils shall be received and instructed therein and 
discharged therefrom ; direct the course of studies therein, and provide in all 
things for the good government and management of the said free academy ; and 
purchase the books, apparatus, stationery and other things necessary and expedient 
to enable the said free academy to be properly and successfully conducted, and 
to keep the said building or buildings properly repaired and furnished. And the 
board, upon the recommendation of the faculty of the free academy, may grant 
the usual degrees and diplomas in the arts to such persons as shall have completed 
a full course of study in the said free academy ; 

6. To appoint annually a standing committee of not less than five persons of 
their number, who shall, subject to the control, supervision and approbation of the 
said board, constitute an executive committee for the care, government and man- 
agement of the said free academy, itnder the rules and regulations prescribed as 
aforesaid, whose duty it shall be to make detailed reports to the said board of 
education, and, among other things, to recommend the rules and regulations which 
they deem necessary and proper for the said academy. The board of education 
may, at any regular meeting thereof, by a majority of all the members of the 



NEW-YORK. 415 

said board, remove any or all the members of the said committee, and appoint 
another person or persons in place of the member or members of the said com- 
mittee so removed ; 

7. To make and transmit annually, on or before the first day of February in 
each year, to the common council of said city, and also to the secretary of 
the board of regents of the university of the State of New- York, a report, signed 
by the president and clerk of the board of education, and dated on the thirty-first 
day of December next preceding, which report shall stale the names and ages of 
all the pupils instructed in such free academy during the preceding year, and the 
time that each was so instructed, specifying which of them have completed a full 
course of study therein, and which have received degrees, medals and other spe- 
cial testimonials ; a particular statement of the studies pursued by each pupil, 
since the last preceding report, together with the books such student shall have 
studied, in whole or in part, and if in part, what portion ; an account or estimate 
of the library, philosophical and chemical apparatus, and mathematical or other 
scientific instruments belonging to such academy ; the names of the instructors 
employed in said academy, and the compensation paid to each ; what amount of 
moneys the board of education received during the year for the purposes of such 
academy, and from what sources, specifying how much from each, and the par- 
ticular manner and the specific purposes for which such moneys have been 
expended; and such other information in relation to education in the said 
academy, and the measures of the board in the management thereof, as the said 
common council or the regents of the university of the State of New-York may 
from time to time require ; 

8. To provide evening schools, for those whose ages or avocations are such as 
to prevent their attending the day schools established by law, in such of the ward 
school-houses or other bwildings used for school purposes, and in such other 
places in said city as they may from time to time deem expedient, and, also, a 
normal school or schools for teachers, which shall be attended by such of the 
teachers in common schools as the board of education by general regulations 
shall direct, under penalty of forfeiture of their situations as teachers by omitting 
to attend, which forfeiture shall be declared by the board of education ; and to 
appoint teachers and furnish all needful supplies for the evening and normal 
schools ; 

9. To furnish all necessary supplies, or make regulations for furnishing such 
supplies, for the several schools under their care ; but when such supplies are 
furnished by the board of education they shall be obtained by contract, proposals 
for which shall be advertised for the period of at least two weeks ; 

10. To make and transmit, between the fifteenth day of January and the first 
day of February, in each year, to the State Superintendent of Public Instruction 
and to the common council of the city of New- York, a report, in writing, bearing 
date on the thirty-first day of December next preceding, stating the whole num- 
ber of schools within their jurisdiction, specially designating the schools for 
colored children ; the schools or societies from which reports shall have been 
made to the board of education within the time limited for that purpose ; the 
length of time such schools shall have been kept open ; the amount of public 
money apportioned or appropriated to said school or society ; the number taught 
in each school ; the whole amount of money drawn from the city chamberlain for 
the purposes of education during the year ending at the date of their report, 
distinguishing the amount received from the general fund of the state, and from 
all other and what sources ; the manner in which such moneys shall have been 
expended; and such other information as the State Superintendent of Public 
Instruction may from time to time require in relation to common school 
education in the city and county of New-York ; and the report which the board 
of education is hereby required to make shall be held and taken to be a full 
compliance with every law requiring a report fioni the said board, or any ofiicer 
of the city and county of New-York, except the city superintendent, relative to 
the schools in the said city, or any matters connected therewith. 



416 NEW-YORK. 

§ 4. If the board of education shall neglect to make such annual report within 
the time limited, the share of school moneys apportioned to the city and county 
of New- York may, in the discretion of the State Superintendent of Public In- 
struction, be withheld until a suitable report shall have been rendered. 

§ 5. The clerk of the board of education shall have charge of the rooms, books, 
papers and documents of the board, and shall, in addition to his duties as secre- 
tary of the board, perform such other clerical duties as may be required by its 
members or committees. 

§ 6. All schools which have been organized under the act entitled " An act to 
extend to the city and county of New- York the provisions of the general act in 
relation to common schools," passed April 11, 1842, and the acts amending the 
same, or organized or adopted under this act, shall be common schools, called 
" ward schools," or "ward primaries;" and each class shall be numbered con- 
secutively, according to the time of their organization or adoption, and all such 
schools shall be under the supervision and government of the commissioners, in- 
spectors and trustees of the ward in which they are located. 



POWERS AND DUTIES OF SCHOOL OFFICERS. 

§ 7. It shall be the duty of the school officers, or a majority of them, in any 
ward ; 

1. To certify to the board of education of the city and county of New- York, 
whenever, in their opinion, it is necessary to organize one or more additional 
schools in said ward, with the facts and circumstances showing such necessity, 
together with the character of the school buildings required, and the number 
and class of scholars who will probably attend such schools, if organized, and to 
organize such schools, as hereinafter provided ; 

2. To provide, under such rules and regulations as the board of education may 
establish, the necessary books, stationery and other essentials necessary to 
organize and conduct any school in their ward ; 

3. To examine, ascertain and report to the board of education, and as frequently 
as may be, whether the provisions of this act in relation to the teaching of secta- 
rian doctrines. Or the use of sectarian books, shall have been violated ; and 

4. To notify the board of education of any vacancy in the office of any school 
officer of their respective wards, and to make nominations as in this act provided. 



POWERS AND DUTIES OF COMMISSIONERS. 

§ 8. It shall be the duty of the commissioners of common schools in the seve- 
ral wards : 

1. To attend all the meetings of the board of education; and if any commis- 
sioner shall refuse or neglect to attend any three successive stated meetings of 
the board, after having been personally notified to attend, and if no satisfactory 
cause of his non-attendance be shown, the board rasij declare his office vacant; 

2. To transmit to the board of education all reports made to them by the 
trustees and inspectors of their respective wards ; 

3. To visit and examine all the schools entitled to participate in the appor- 
tionment ; 

4. They shall be, ex officio, members of the board of trustees of their respective 
wards - 



POWERS AJVD DUTIES OF INSPECTORS. 

§ 9. It shall be the duty of the inspectors of common schools : 
1. To inspect and examine each of the schools in their respective wards at least 
twice in each year, and oftener if necessary ; and on or before the fifteenth day 
of October, in each year, to make and transmit to the board of education, and to 



NEW-YORK. 417 

the trustees of the ward, a report in writing, in which they shall set forth the 
condition of tine several school buildings in use in their ward, and whether any, 
and, if any, what repairs, alterations or modifications of those buildings seem to 
them necessary ; 

2. Whether they are kept clean and in good order ; 

3. In what manner they are heated and ventilated, and how effectual the 
means used are in producing the result desired ; 

4. The studies pursued ; 

5. The progress of the classes in their different studies ; 

6. The punctuality of attendance of the scholars and teachena ; 

7. The order, attention and general appearance of the school; 

8. The length of each morning and evening session ; and the number and length 
of recesses allowed ; 

9. The number and qualifications of the teachers, and such other facts as in 
their opinion are important to insure the discipline or extend the usefulness of 
the schools ; 

10. In conjunction with the city superintendent of common schools, to license 
teachers for their respective wards ; and 

11. To examine and audit all accounts, when duly certified by the trustees to 
be correct. 



POWERS AND DUTIES OF TRUSTEES. 

§ 10. It shall be the duty of the trustees for each ward, and they shall have 
the power : 

1. To have the safe keeping of all the premises and other property used foi" 
or belonging to the ward schools and the ward primaries in»their respective wards;- 

2. Under such general rules and regulations as the board of education may 
adopt, to contract with and employ teachers and janitors in the said schools, and 
conduct and manage the same, and furnish all needful supplies therefor, subject 
to the provisions of the third section of this act ; and make all needful repairs, 
alterations and additions in and to the school premises, provided that, if the cost 
of any such repairs, alteration or addition shall exceed the sum of two hundred, 
dollars, the same shall be made by contract, pursuant to the twenty-fifth section 
of this act ; 

3. To procure, as may be necessary, blank books, in one of which a statement 
of the amounts of all moneys received and paid by the trustees or otherwise, for 
or on account of each of the schools conducted by them, and of all movable pro- 
perty belonging to each school, shall be entered at large and signed by such 
trustees ; and in one book minutes of their meetings shall be kept; and in other 
books the principal teacher of each school and department shall enter the names, 
ages and residences of the scholars attending the school, the name of a parent or 
guardian of each scholar, and the days on which the scholars shall have respec- 
tively attended, and the aggregate attendance of each scholar during the year ; 
also the days on which each school shall have been visited by the city and 
assistant superintendents of schools, and the school officers of the ward, and the 
members of the board of education or any of them, which entries shall be verified 
by the oath or affirmation of the principal teacher in such school or department. 
The said books shall be preserved by the trustees as the property of the school, 
and shall be delivered to their successors ; 

4. To make, at least five days before the first day of January in every year, or 
such other day as may be designated by the board of education, in the case of a 
school kept open after the twenty-fifth day of December, and transmit to the 
board of education, a report in writing, dated the thirty-first day of December, 
which shall be signed and certified by a majority of the trustees, and which 
report shall state the whole number of schools within their jurisdiction, especially 
designating the schools for colored children; the length of time each school shall 
have been kept open ; the whole number of scholars over four and under twenty- 

rCoDE.] 53 



418 NEW-YORK. 

one years of age who shall have been taught, free of expense to such scholars, in 
their schools during the year ending with the date of the report, which number 
shall be ascertained by adding to the number of children on register, at the com- 
mencement of each year, the number admitted during that year, which shall be 
considered the total for that year ; the average number that has actually attended 
such schools during the year, to be ascertained by the teacher's keeping an exact 
account of the number of scholars present every school time or half day, which, 
being added together and divided by four hundred and sixty, or, if less than a 
year, by the number of school sessions, shall be considered the average of attend- 
ing scholars, which average shall be sworn or affirmed to by the principal teacher 
of the school ; a detailed statement of the amount of moneys received for or paid 
on account of their respective schools during the year from or by the chamberlain 
of the city, and of the purposes for and the manner in which the same shall have 
been expended ; and a particular account of the state of the schools, and of the 
property and affairs of each school under their care ; and the titles of all books 
used, with such other information as the board of education shall require ; and 
for the purposes of this act each department shall, whenever practicable, be con- 
sidered as a separate school ; 

6. To hold as a corporation all personal property vested in or transferred to 
them for school purposes in their respective wards ; 

6. To render, at the expiration of their respective terms of office, to their suc- 
cessors a just and true account in writing of all moneys received by them for 
school purposes, and of the manner in which the same shall have been expended, 
and to pay any balance which may remain in their hands to their successors ; 

7. To meet statedly at times, to be by them appointed, and to declare vacant, 
by the votes of a majority of the trustees of the ward, the seat of any person, 
elected or appointed as a trustee, who shall refuse or neglect, without satisfactory 
cause shown by him to the said trustees, to attend any three successive stated 
meetings of the trustees, after having been previously notified to attend ; and to 
notify the clerk of the board of education, at least twenty days previous to any 
general election, of any vacancy that will exist in the school offices of said ward 
at the expiration of their projent j'ear, with the cause or reason of such vacancy 
or vacancies. 

OF THE CITY SUPERINTENDENT. 

§ 11. The city and assistant superintendents of schools shall take and subscribe, 
before the clerk of the board of education, the oath of office prescribed by the 
constitution of this state ; shall each hold office for the term of two years and 
until his successor is appoirted, subject to removal by the board on complaint, 
for cause stated ; shall respectively receive such compensation as the board of 
education may designate, which shall not be changed during the term of office of 
any incumbent; and shall be subject to such rules and regulations as the board 
of education may establish. It shall be specially the duty of the city superin- 
tendent : 

1. To visit every school under the charge of the board of education as often as 
once in each year ; to inquire into all matters relating to the government, course 
of instruction, books, studies, discipline and conduct of such schools, and the 
condition of the school-houses and of the schools generally, and to advise and to 
counsel with tlie trustees in relation to their duties, the proper studies, discipline 
and conduct of the schools, the course of instruction to be pursued, and the books 
of elementary instruction to be used therein ; and to examine, ascertain and report 
to the board of education, whether the provisions of the act in relation to religious 
sectarian teaching and books have been violated in any of the schools of the differ- 
ent wards of the city ; and to make a monthly report to the board of education, 
stating which of the schools have been visited by him, and adding such comments 
in respect to the matters above specified as he maj'^ consider necessary and advi- 
sable ; and to transmit to the respective boards of ward trustees copies of so 
much of such reports as relates to schools under their management ; 



NEW-YORK. 419 

2. TJiider such general rules and regulations as the board of education may 
establish, to examine into the qualifications of persons proposed as teachers in 
any of the schools under the charge of the board, and to grant certificates, in the 
forms prescribed by the board, to such of tbe persons so examined as may be 
entitled thereto ; which certificates shall specify in which class of schools and in 
what capacity the persons to whom any certificate is granted are qualified to 
teach, and shall be evidence in respect thereto ; to reexamine, whenever the city 
superintendent may deem necessary, any of the teachers employed in the schools 
under the charge of the board ; and to annul, for any cause satisfactory to the 
city superintendent, any license or certificate of qualification to teach in the 
schools of the city of New- York ; but such action shall not be taken by him until 
he has given at least ten days' previous notice to the teacher and to the trustees 
of the ward in which he is employed, nor until the teacher has been allowed a 
hearing ; nor shall such action disqualify the teacher, until a note of the decision 
of the city superintendent, stating the name of the teacher and the time when the 
license or certificate was annulled, has been signed by the city superintendent, 
filed in the oflSce of the clerk of the board of education, and served upon the 
teacher; provided, however, that every such teacher shall have a right to appeal 
to the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and incase such appeal is taken- 
by the teacher within ten days after the note of the decision is served upon him, 
he shall not be disqualified until the action of the city superintendent has been 
confirmed by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction ; 

3. Generally, by all the means in his power, under the regulations of the board 
of education in respect thereto, to promote sound education, elevate the character 
and qualifications of teachers, improve the means of instruction, and advance the 
interests of the schools committed to his charge. 

§ 12. The city superintendent shall be subject to such general rules and regu- 
lations as the State Superintendent of Public Instruction may prescribe; and 
appeals from his acts and decisions may be made to the superintendent in the 
same manner and with like effect as in cases now provided by law, and he shall 
make annually to the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, at such times as 
shall be appointed by him, a report, in writing, containing the whole number of 
schools in the city and county, distinguishing the schools from which the neces- 
sary reports have been made to the board of education by the commissioners, 
inspectors and trustees of common schools, and containing a certified copy of* 
the reports of the board of education to the clerk of the city and county, with 
such additional information as the State Superintendent of Public Instruction may 
require. 

§ 13. It shall be the duty of the board of education, by general rules and regu- 
lations, to provide a proper classification of studies, scholars and salaries, in such 
manner that, as near as practicable, the system of instruction pursued in the 
common schools and the salaries paid to teachers shall be uniform throughout 
the city. 



OF THE SUPPORT OF SCHOOLS. 

§ 14. Whenever the clerk of the city and county shall receive notice from the 
State Superintendent of Public Instruction of the amount of moneys apportioned 
to the county of New- York for the support and encouragement of common schools 
therein, he shall immediately lay the same before the board of supervisors of said 
county; and the chamberlain of the said city shall apply for and receive the 
school moneys apportioned to the said county as soon as the same become payable, 
and place the same in the city treasury, for the same purposes as the moneys 
raised under the sixteenth section of this act. 

§ 15. The said board of supervisors shall annually raise and collect, by tax 
upon the inhabitants of the said city and county, a sum of money, equal to the 
sum specified in such notice, at the time and in the same manner as the contingent 
charges of the said city and county are levied and collected, also a sum of money 



420 NEW-YORK. 

equal to one-twentieth of one per cent of the value of the real and personal 
property in the said city liable to be assessed thereon, and pay the same into the 
city treasury, to be applied to the purposes of common schools in the said citj ; 
and the board of education shall apportion the money so raised to each of the 
schools hereafter provided for by this act, except the free academy and the 
evening schools, according to the number of children over four and under twenty- 
one years of age who were actual residents of the city and county of New-York 
at the time of their attendance on such schools, without charge, the preceding 
year; and the average shall be ascertained by adding together the number of 
such children present at each morning and afternoon session of not less than three 
hours, and dividing the sum by four hundred and sixty; and if any school shall 
have been organized since the last annual apportionment, the average shall be 
ascertained by dividing by a number corresponding to the actual number of 
morning and evening sessions, of not less than three hours each, held since the 
organization of such school ; and the sum apportioned to any schools, other than 
the ward schools, shall be paid to the trustees, managers or directors of such 
schools, respectively, by di-afts on the city chamberlain, to be signed by the presi- 
dent and clerk of said board, and made payable to the order of the treasurers of 
said trustees, managers or directors. 

§ 16. Said board of supervisors shall also raise and collect, at the same time 
and in the same manner, such additional sum or suras as the board of education, 
in pursuance of the provisions of the first subdivision of the third section of this 
act, shall have reported to be necessary for the purposes therein mentioned. Such 
moneys shall be paid into the city treasury, and shall, together with the amounts 
apportioned to the schools under the charge of the board of education, be paid 
by the chamberlain of the said city upon the drafts drawn on him by the board 
of education, signed by the president and countersigned by the clerk of the 
board, and by the commissioners, or one of them, of the ward for which the 
money is to be paid, except such sums as shall be drawn for purposes other than 
the expenses of ward schools, which shall be paid by said chamberlain upon drafts 
drawn on him by said board, signed by the president and clerk, and coimtersigned 
by the chairman of the finance committee of said board ; and all drafts shall be 
made payable to the person or persons entitled to receive the same, except that 
the payment of wages and salaries may be made by pay-rolls, upon which each 
person shall separately receipt for the amount paid to such person ; and in every 
case of payment by a pay-roll, the draft for the aggregate amount of wages or 
salaries included therein shall be made payable to the superintendent, principal 
teacher or other officer designated for the purpose by the by-laws of the board 
of education. 

§ 17. If any of the said newly organized ward schools, by I'eason of peculiar 
circumstances, shall be equitably entitled to a larger sum than they will receive 
under an apportionment made as aforesaid, then the board of education shall be 
authorized, and they are hereby reqiiired, to make to such schools such further 
allowance out of the school moneys as they, the board of education, shall deem 
just and proper. 

§ 18. No school shall be entitled to or receive any portion of the school moneys 
in which the religious doctrines or tenets of any particular Christian or other 
religious sect shall be taught, inculcated or practiced, or in which any book or 
books, containing compositions favorable or prejudicial to the particular doctrines 
or tenets of any particular Christian or other religious sect, or which shall teach 
the doctrines or tenets of any other religious sect, or which shall refuse to permit 
the visits and examinations provided for in tliis act. But nothing herein contained 
shall authorize the board of education to exclude the Holy Scriptures, without 
note or comment, or any selections therefrom, from any of the schools provided 
for by this act ; but it shall not be comptitent for the said board of education to 
decide what version, if any, of the Holy Scriptures, without note or comment, 
shall be used in any of the schools ; provided that nothing herein contained shall 
be so construed as to violate the rights of conscience as secured by the Constitu- 
tion of this state and of the United States ; 



NEW-YORK. 421 

§ 19. If the school monej-s apportioned to the common schools, agreeably to 
the previous section of this act, shall exceed the necessary and legal expenses of 
either of such schools, the board of education shall authorize the payment only 
of such sum or sums as shall be sufficient to provide for such expenses, and any 
deficiency in the sums apportioned to meet the necessary and legal expenses of 
public education in the said scliools shall be supplied by the common council of 
the said city; and they are hereby authorized and directed to raise by loan, in 
anticipation of the annual tax, such sum or sums as shall be necessary to meet 
such deficiency. And the board of education shall in all cases certify to the 
common council the cause of such deficiency, and that the same was unavoidable ; 
and unless such certificate shall be made, the said common council may refuse to 
raise the sum required to meet such deficiency. 

§ 20. The board of education shall require from the executive committees con- 
ducting schools by appointment of the board, and from the trustees, managers or 
directors of the corporate schools entitled to participate in the apportionment of 
school moneys, a report in all respects similar to that required from the trustees 
of each ward by the tenth section of this act. And in making the apportionment 
among the several schools, no share shall be allotted to any school or society 
from which no sufficient annual report shall have been received for the year end- 
ing on the last day of December immediately preceding the apportionment. 

§ 21. Whenever an apportionment of the public money shall not be made to 
any school, in consequence of any accidental omission to make any report 
required by law or to comply with any other regulation or provision of law, the 
board of education may, in its discretion, direct an apportionment to be made to 
such school, according to the equitable circumstances of the case, to be paid out 
of the public money on hand, or, if the same shall have been distributed, out of 
the public money to be received in a succeeding year. 

OP THE SCHOOLS ENTITLED TO PARTICIPATE IN THE APPORTIONMENT. 

§ 22. The New- York Orphan Asylum school, the Roman Catholic Orphan 
Asylum school, the schools of the two Half-Orphan Asylums, the school of the 
Mechanics' Society, the school of the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile 
Delinquents in the city of Kew-York, the Hamilton Free School, the school for 
the Leake and Watts' Orphan House, the school connected with the Alms House 
of the said city, the school of the Association for the Benefit of Colored Orphans, 
the schools of the American Female Guardian Society, the schools of the Society 
for the Promotion of Education among Colored Children [the schools of the 
Five Points House of Industry and the Ladies' Home Missionary Society, see 
chap. 450 q/1855], the schools organized under the act entitled " An act to ex- 
tend to the city and county of New-York the provisions of the general act in 
relation to common schools," passed April 11, 1842, or an act to amend the same, 
passed April 18, 1843, or an act entitled '■ An act more efiectually to provide for 
common school education in the city and county of New-York," passed May 7, 
1844, or any of the acts amending the same, and including such normal schools 
for the education of teachers as the board of education may organize, and the 
normal school of the Public School Society for the Education of Teachers, and 
such schools as may be organized under the provisions of this act, shall be subject 
to the general supervision of the board of education, and shall be entitled to par- 
ticipate in the apportionment of the school moneys, as provided for by this act, 
but they shall be under the immediate direction of their respective trustees, 
managers and directors, as herein provided. 

OF NEW SCHOOLS. 

§ 23. Whenever a majority of the school officers of any ward shall certify in 
writing to the board of education that it is necessary to establish a school in said 
ward, with the facts and circumstances showing such necessity, together with the 



422 NEW-YORK. 

number and class of scholars who will probably attend such school, if established, 
it shall be the duty of the board of education without delay, to investigate the 
subject and determine the expediency of establishing such school in such ward 
applying for the same. Should the ward officers, or any of them, deem them- 
selves aggrieved by such decision, they may appeal to the State Superintendent 
of Public Instruction, who shall decide as to the propriety of the establishment 
of such school, and his decision, if adverse to the appellants, shall be binding for 
the term of one year. 

§ 24. Upon a decision favorable to the establishment of a school or schools in 
any of the wards of said city, it shall be lawful for the school office' s of said ward 
to proceed to organiz;e one or more schools, such as may be authorized by the 
board of education, and procure a school-house, by purchasing or hiring the 
same, or by procuring a site and erecting a building thereon, according to plans 
and specifications and contracts which shall have been duly filed with and 
approved by the board of education ; the erection of which said building, and the 
fitting up thereof, and the fitting up of any hired building, shall be done by con- 
tract, proposals for which shall be advertised for two weeks previous to deciding 
upon estimates thereon, unless such fitting up shall not exceed the sura of two 
hundred dollars ; and the expense of establishing and organizing any school, as 
above mentioned, shall be levied and raised pursuant to the provisions of this act. 

§ 25. The title to all school property, real and personal, purchased with any 
moneys derived from the distribution or apportionment of the school moneys, or 
raised by taxation in the city of New- York, shall be vested in the mayor, alder- 
men and commonalty of said city, but shall be under the care and control of the 
board of education for the purposes of public education, and all suits in relation 
to the same shall be brought in the name of said board ; and no contract or con- 
tracts shall be made by the school officers of any ward, for the purchase of any 
site, without the consent of the board of education, or for the erection or fitting 
up or repairing of any building, when such repairs shall exceed in amount the 
sum of two hundred dollars, as authorized in this act, until a statement in writing 
of the amount required for that purpose shall have been presented to the board 
of education by said school officers, and, together with a copy of the working 
drawings, plans and specifications of the work to be done, pursuant to the pro- 
visions of this act, shall have been duly filed and approved of, as herein required, 
and an appropriation shall have been made by the board of education therefor. 

§ 2G. The trustees, managers and directors of any of the corpoi-ate schools enti- 
tled to participate in the apportionment of the school moneys may at any time 
convey their school-houses and sites to the corporation of the city of New- York, 
and transfer anj- of their schools to the board of education, on the terms and in 
the manner to be agreed upon and prescribed by the board of education, so as 
either to merge the said schools in the ward schools or adopt them as ward 
schools; and the same shall then be ward schools, subject to all the rules, duties 
and liabilities, and enjoy the same rights, as if they had been originally established 
as ward schools. 



OF THE DISCONTINUANCE OF SCHOOLS. 

§ 27. Whenever, owing to any nuisance or other circumstances in the immediate 
vicinity of any school, or to the small attendance of scholars therein, or other 
sufficient reason, it shall appear to the board of education necessary and proper 
to discontinue such school in any of the wai'ds of this city, the said board shall 
give notice to the trustees of said school of its intention to consider the propriety 
of such discontinuance ; and in thirty days after such notice may proceed to 
investigate the matter, and if a majority of the school officers of the ward shall 
consent to the same, and if the said board shall determine by a vote of a majority 
of all the members thereof that it is proper to close the same, it shall be the duty 
of said board to withhold all moneys which have been apportioned or appro- 
priated for the support of said school, and the said school shall not thereafter par- 



NEW-YOEK. 423 

tictpate in any subsequent apportionment of the school monej^s. So soon as the 
same shall take effect, the comptroller of the city shall be notified thereof by the 
said board, and the said school-house and site may thereupon be used or disposed 
of as a part of the general property of the city. 



MISCELLANEOUS PEOVISIONS. 

§ 28. The common council of the city of^ew-York are hereby authorized and 
directed to raise by loan, in anticipation of the taxes, when necessary, all moneys 
required for erecting, purchasing or leasing school-houses and procuring sites 
therefor, and the fitting up and furnishing thereof, and for alterations in or addi- 
tions to the present school buildings, or required for any other of the purposes 
authorized by this act. 

§ 29. All expenses incurred for the support of common schools in the respective 
wards shall be certified by the trustees of common schools in such ward, or a 
majority of them, and delivered to the inspectors of said ward; and it shall be 
the duty of said inspectors to examine and audit the same, and, upon said inspec- 
tors being satisfied of their correctness, to certify the same to the board of educa- 
tion. All bills audited and paid shall be filed with the board of education. 

§ 30. No compensation shall be allowed tu the commissioners, inspectors or 
trustees of common schools for any services performed by them, but the commis- 
sioners and inspectors shall receive their actual and reasonable expenses while 
attending to the duties of tlieir oflice, to be audited and allowed by tiie board of 
education. 

§ 31. Every school officer who shall refuse or neglect to render an account, or 
to pay over any balance in his hands at the expiration of his term of office, shall, 
for each offence, forfeit the sura of fifty dollars, which sum, together with said 
unpaid balance, shall be sued for and collected by the board of supervisors, who 
shall prosecute without delay for the recovery of such forfeiture, together with 
the unpaid balance ; and in case of the death of such school officer, suit may be 
brought against his representatives, and all moneys recovered, after deducting 
expenses, shall be placed at the disposal of the board of education. 

§ 32. Every person in the employ of the board of education, and every school 
officer, and every oflScer or teacher of a school or society, who shall wilfully sign 
a false report to the board of education, shall, for each offence, forfeit the sum 
of twenty-five dollars, and shall be deemed guilty of misdemeanor ; and every 
such person or officer who shall wilfully misapply any of the public funds com- 
mitted to his care shall be deemed guiltj'^ of embezzlement. 

§ 33. The following shall be substantially the form of oath or affirmation to be 
made by the teacher : 

" A. B., of the city of New- York, teacher of No. 

department, being duly sworn or aflSrmed, declares and says that, to the best of 
(his or her) knowledge and belief, the a rerage number of children, actual resi- 
dents of the city and county of New- York at the time of attending said school, 
between the age of four and twenty-one years, who attended said school or depart- 
ment, each school-time or half-day, from the day of 
to the first day of January, , was , said average 
having been obtained by adding together the number of scholars present each 
school-time or half day, and dividing the total by four hundred and sixty, agree- 
ably to the fifteenth section of this act." 

§ 34. If any suit which shall hereafter be commenced against the commissioners 
or trustees of common schools for any act performed by virtue of or under color 
of their offices, or for any refusal or omission to perform any duty enjoined by 
law, and which might have been the subject of an appeal to the superintendent; 
no costs shall be allowed to the plaintiff in cases where the court shall certify it 
appeared on the trial of the cause that the defendants acted in good faith. But 



424 NEW-YORK. 

this provision shall not extend to suits for penalties, nor to suits or proceedings 
to enforce the decisions of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

§ 35. All children between the age of four and twenty-one, residing in the city 
and county, shall be entitled to attend any of the common schools therein : and 
the parents, guardians or other persons having the custody or care of such child- 
ren shall not be liable to any tax, assessment or imposition for the tuition of 
any children other than is hereinbefore provided. 

§ 36. The free academy in the city of New- York shall be entitled to participate 
in the distribution of the income of the literature and other funds, in the same 
manner and upon the same conditions as the other academies of the state ; and the 
regents of the university of the State of New- York shall pay annually to the board 
of education of the city and county of New- York the distributive share of the 
said funds to which the said free academy shall by law be entitled, and which 
shall be applied and exjiended for library books for the said free academy. 

§ 37. The clerk of the board of education is hereby authorized to administer 
oaths and take affidavits in all matters appertaining to the schools in the city and 
county of New-York, and for that purpose shall possess all the powers of a com- 
missioner of deeds, but shall not be entitled to any of the fees or emoluments 
thereof. 

§ 38. No school officer shall be interested in any contract, payments under 
which are to be made, in whole or in part, out of moneys derived from the school 
fund or raised by taxation for the support of common schools. No teacher 
employed in any of the schools entitled to participate in the apportionment of 
the school moneys shall hereafter be eligible to the office of commissioner, 
inspector or trustee of common schools. 

§ 39. The superintendent of school buildings shall take and subscribe before 
the clerk of the board of education the oath prescribed by the constitution of 
this state, and give such security for the faithful performance of the duties of his 
office as the board of education may direct; and the department under his charge 
shall be subject to such rules and regulations as the said board may establish, 
one of which shall prohibit the performance by him of any work on other account 
similar to that performed under the regulations so established. 

§ 40. The act entitled " An act to extend to the city and county of New-York 
the provisions of tiie general act in relation to common schools," passed April 11, 
1842, and an act amending the same, passed April 18th, 1843, and an act entitled 
"An act more effectually to provide for common school education in the city and 
county of New-York," passed May 7th, 1844, and the several acts amending the 
same, passed respectively on May 11th, 1847, March 27th, 1848, April 11th, 
1849, and the act authorizing the board of education of the city of New-York 
to establish evening schools for the education of apprentices and others, passed 
March 25th, 1848, and an act authorizing the board of education of the city and 
county of New-York to establish a free academy in said city, passed May 7th, 
1847, and all other acts and parts of acts, inconsistent with or repugnant to the 
provisions of this act, are hereby repealed. 

[Laws of 1853, chap. 217.] 

[The only sections of this act which relate to public instruction are the fol- 
lowing :] 

§ 16. All the ordinary appropriations made for the support and government 
of the alms-house department sliall, before the same are finally made, be submit- 
ted by the governors of the alms-house to a board of commissioners, consisting 
of the mayor, recorder, comptroller, the president of the board of alderman, and 
the president of the board of councilmen ; if the said commissioners approve of 
the appropriation, they shall immediately report the same to the board of super- ■* 
visors ; if they shall disapprove of the same-, they shall return them, with their 
objections, to the governors of the alms-house for reconsideration ; and in case the 
said governors shall, upon a re-consideration adhere by a vote of two-thirds of 



NEW-YOEK. 425 

all the governors then in office to the original appropriations, they shall return 
them to the commissioners, whose duty it shall be to report to the board of 
supervisors. 

§ 17. The board of education shall also submit in like manner all appropria-. 
tions required by them to the commissioners named in the last preceding section, 
and said appropriations shall be subject to all the provisions of said section, so 
far as the same may be applicable. 



[Laws 0/1853, chap. 301.] 

Section 1. The Public School Society of the city of New- York shall, on or 
before the first day of September, eighteen hundred and fifty-three, convey and 
transfer, according to this act, by deed to be approved by the counsel to the 
corporation of said city, all their corporate property to the mayor, -aldermen and 
commonalty of the city of New-York, subject to all liens and incumbrances thereon 
and the debts of said society ; and thereupon the said property shall belong to the 
said mayor, aldermen and commonalty, in the same manner as the school property 
now used and occupied by the ward schools belongs to the said mayor, aldermen 
and commonalty ; and the schools of the Public School Society shall be ward 
schools, subject to the same control, and enjoy the same rights and privileges, as 
if originally organized as ward schools ; but such portions of the property afore- 
said as have been granted to the pubhc school society, subject to the trust that 
the same shall be devoted to the purposes of common schools, shall he held subject 
to such trust, and the premises now known as Trustees' Hall, situated at the 
corner of Grand and Elm streets, shall be used and occupied by the board of 
education, as long as they may think advisable, for the meetings and business 
thereof, and for such educational purposes as the said board may direct ; and the 
residue of the property aforesaid shall be conveyed for the purposes of common 
schools, in the same manner as the property purchased by the authority of the 
board of education for the purpose aforesaid. 

§ 2. The Public School Society shall, at the time of such conveyance, make a 
detailed statement of all their property, real and personal, and of all their debts of 
every description existing at the time of such conveyance, which shall be certified 
as a full, just and true statement of all such property and debts by their presi- 
dent, treasurer and secretary, and shall deliver one copy thereof, so certified, to 
the comptroller of the city of New-York, and the other copy, so certified, to the 
clerk of the city and county of New- York, for the use of the board of supervisors 
of the city and county of New-York ; and the said board of supervisors shall 
thereupon proceed to audit and determine the amount of all the debts of the 
said society, and shall cause the same to be certified and filed with the said 
comptroller. 

§ 3. Upon the amount of the debts of the said society being so certified and 
filed, it shall be lawful for the mayor, aldermen and commonalty of the city of 
New- York, and it shall be their duty, to raise by loan, a sum not exceeding the 
amount of the debt so certified and filed, by the creation of a public fund or stock, 
to be called " The public education stock of the city of New- York, of the year 
one thousand eight hundred and fifty-three," which shall bear an interest of five 
per cent per annum, and which shall be redeemable at a period of time not more 
than twenty years from the passage of this act. The said mayor, aldermen and 
commonalty shall determine of what number of shares the said stock shall con- 
sist; and the said stock shall be disposed of by public competition, under the 
direction of the commissioners of the sinking fund of the city of New- York. The 
moneys raised by virtue of this act shall be applied for the purpose of paying 
^d discharging all the said debts ; any deficiency, by reason of interest accruing 
on the said debts, after the same are so certified and filed, shall be paid by the 
said mayor, aldermen and commonalty out of the city treasury ; and any excess, 
by reason of the said stock being disposed of at a premium, shall be held as a part 
of the sinking fund hereinafter provided. 

[Code.] 54 



426 NEW-YORK. 

§ 4. The board of supervisors shall, j'early and every year until the said stock 
shall be wholly redeemed and paid off, order and cause to be raised by tax, on the 
estate, real and personal, of the freeholders and inhabitants of and situated 
within the said city and county, and to be collected accoi'ding to law, a sum of 
money sufficient to pay the inteiest on the said stock as the same falls due, and 
to pay and discharge the principal by the time the same shall be payable. All 
of which moneys, so to be raised, shall be under the management and control of 
the commissioners of the sinking fund of the city of New-York; and all such 
moneys, so to be raised, are hereby inviolably pledged to pay the interest and 
redeem the principal of the said stock. 

§ 5. The Public School Society may, immediately after so conveying all their 
corporate property, appoint fifteen, from the then trustees of said society, to be 
commissioners of common schools for the city of New-York and members of the 
board of education, designating the ward for which each person is appointed — 
and not more than one for any one ward — who shall hold their offices till the first 
day of Jaimary, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five ; and the said Public 
School Society may also at the same time appoint, from among their own 
trustees, three trustees of common schools for each ward of said city in which 
one or more of the schools of said society are now established, designating the 
ward for which each person is appointed ; and the said trustees so appointed 
shall be so designated, in the certificate of appointment, that one shall serve until 
January first, eighteen hundred and fifty-five, one till January first, eighteen 
hundred and fifty-six, and one until Januar}' first, eighteen hundred and fifty- 
seven. The said appointments shall be made by a certificate signed by the offi- 
cers of said society, and filed with the clerk of the board of education; and the 
said commissioners and trustees so appointed shall have the same rights and 
powers, and be subject to the same liabilities and duties, as other commissioners 
and trustees of common schools in said city, except that they need not reside in 
the wards for which they are appointed. Any vacancy occurring in the office of 
any such commissioner or trustee shall be filled in the same manner as vacancies 
in school offices are now filled. 

§ 6. As soon as the said Public School Society shall have conveyed all their 
corporate property, and made and filed the statements, and made and filed the 
appointments of commissioners and trustees provided for in the previous sections 
of this act, the corporate powers and the existence of the said Public School 
Society shall cease, and their schools be merged in the system of public instruc- 
tion provided by the act entitled " An act to amend, consolidate and reduce to 
one act the various acts relative to the common schools of the city of New- York," 
passed July third, eighteen hundred and fiftj^-one, so as to be and remain, pursu- 
ant to the provisions of this act, an integral portion thereof, and then and thereby 
the said society shall be dissolved; and then, and from thenceforth, the common 
schools of the city of New- York shall be numbered consecutively by the board 
of education. 

[ Sections seven to fifteen of this act are solely amendatory of the act of 1851, 
and the amendments they prescribe are embodied in that act. ] 

§ 16. This act shall take effect immediately, except that sections three, four, 
thirteen and fifteen shall not take effect until the said Public School Society 
have conveyed their property, and made and furnished a list thereof, and of their 
debts, and made and filed the certificate of appointment provided for by this act, 
but shall take effect immediately thereafter. 

[Lawsof I8^i, chap. 267.] 

§ 2. All the trusts and estates held by or vested in the Public School Society 
of the city of New- York, as organized and existing previous to its several acts, in 
compliance with tlie provisions of the act entitled "An act relative to commo^ 
schools in the city of New- York," passed the fourth day of June, one thousand 
eight hundred and fifty-three, which have not been conveyed by the society, and 
all the rights, powers and duties of the said society which yet remain therein, 



OSWEGO. 427 

shall continue and be vested in the board of education of the city of New- York, 
■which board is and shall be held to be the lawful successors of the said society in 
the execution of every trust ; and the corporate existence of the said society is 
hereby merged in the said board ; and the persons appointed by the said society 
as commissioners and trustees of common schools, under and by virtue of the 
said act, shall, during the terms for which they were respectively appointed, have 
and possess all the rights and powers, and be subject to all the liabilities and 
duties, of the offices to which they were so appointed, as fully and completely as 
they would or could if the said society had fully comijlied with all the provisions 
of the said act. 

§ 3. The commissioners referred to in the seventeeth section of the act entitled 
" An act further to amend the charter of the city of New-York," passed the 
twelfth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, shall approve 
of and report to the board of supervisors all appropriations submitted to the said 
commissioners by the board of education, within twenty days after such submis- 
sion is made, by the delivery of a statement of the appropriations required by the 
board of education to the comptroller, who shall immediately convene the said 
commissioners to consider the same ; or else the said commissioners shall, within 
the said twenty days, return and file the same, with their objections, in the office 
of the clerk of the board of education ; and the provisions of the said act shall 
cease to operate upon or affect, from and after the expiration of the said twenty 
days, any appropriation in respect to which the said commissioners shall have 
omitted to take such action ; or any appropriation to which the board of educa- 
tion, upon a reconsideration pursuant to said act, shall have adhered by the 
requisite vote of two-thirds, which the said commissioners shall omit to report 
within ten days after the return thereof to them, to the board of supervisors. And 
the provisions of the said act shall apply to such only of the appropriations 
required by the board of education as are required by law to be acted upon by 
the board of supervisors. 



OSWEGO. 
[ Laws of 1853, chap. 119, as amended by chap. 437 of 1853, and chap. 9G of 1855.] 

Section 1. There shall be elected, at a special election to be held in the city of 
Oswego, on the first Tuesday of May, eighteen hundred and fifty-three, in the 
same manner and under the same regulations as other ward officers are elected 
from each of the wards of said city, two persons to be commissioners of common 
schools of said city. The persons so elected shall be residents of the ward for 
which they shall be elected, and within ten days after receiving notice of their 
election take the oath of office prescribed by the constitution of this state, and 
file the same with the city clerk. 

§ 2. Within ten days after their election mentioned, said commissioners shall 
meet in the office of the clerk of said city, and shall determine by lot which of 
the two persons so elected for each ward shall serve for the term ending on the 
second Tuesday of May, eighteen hundred and fifty-four, and which for the term 
ending on the first Tuesday of May, eighteen hundred and fifty-five. 

§ 3. In each year thereafter there shall be elected in said city, at a special 
election to be held on the first Tuesday of May, in each year, in the same manner 
and under the same regulations as other ward officers are elected, one commissioner 
of common schools for each ward, to supply the places of those whose terms are 
about to expire ; they shall hold their offices for two years, and until others are 
^appointed and have taken the oath of office. The term of the office of all the 
commissioners elected pursuant to this act shall commence on the Tuesday next 
after the election. 

§ 4. The commoft council of said city may make appointments of commissioners 
of common schools, to fill vacancies which may occur from any other cause than 



428 OSWEGO. 

the expiration of the term of office of those elected. The commissioners so 
appointed shall hold their office until the Tuesday next succeeding the next annual 
election ; and at each annual election there shall be chosen a commissioner to 
suppl}' the place of any person so appointed, and the person thus elected shall 
serve out the unexpired term. 

§ 5. Any commissioner of common schools in said city may be removed from 
office for official misconduct by the common council of said citj', by a vote of 
two-thirds of the members thereof; but a written copy of the charges preferred 
against said commissioner shall be served upon him, and he shall be allowed an 
opportunity of refuting any such charges of misconduct before removal. 

§ 6. The commissioners of common schools in said city shall constitute a board, 
to be styled " The Board of Educaton of the city of Oswego," which shall be a 
corporate body in relation to all the powers and duties conferred upon them by 
virtue of this act. A majority of the board shall constitute a quorum. The first 
meeting of said board shall be held on the second Wednesday of May, eighteen 
hundred and fifty -three; and the annual meetings of said board, in each year 
thereafter, shall be held on the second Wednesday of May, in eacli year ; at the 
first meeting of the board, and annually thereafter, at the annual meeting, they 
shall elect one of their number president of the board, and whenever he shall bo 
absent, a president pro tempore may be appointed. The said commissioners shall 
receive no compensation for their services, nor shall they be interested, directly 
or indirectly, in anj^ contract for building or for making any improvement or 
repairs provided for by this act. They shall also have the care of the gospel and 
school lands, and the securities taken therefor belonging to said city, and shall 
have full power to sell the same and apply the proceeds in such manner as they 
.shall deem most for the interests of the school districts in said city now entitled 
thereto. 

g 7. The said commissioners shall meet for the transaction of business as often 
as once in each month, and may adjourn for any shorter time. Special meetings 
may be called by the president, or, in his absence or inabilitj' to act, by any 
member of the board, as often as necessary, by giving personal notice to each 
member of the board, or by causing a written or printed notice to be left at his 
last place of residence, at least twenty-four hours before the hour for such special 
meeting. 

§ 8. The said commissioners shall appoint a secretary and librarian, who shall 
hold his office during the pleasure of the board, and whose compensation shall bo 
fixed by the board ; the said secretary shall keep a record of the proceedings of 
the board, have charge of the library, and perform such other duties as the board 
may prescribe. The said record, or transcript thereof certified by the secretary, 
shall be received in all courts as 'prima facie evidence of the facts therein set 
forth ; and such record, in all the books, accounts, vouchers and papers of said 
board, shall at all times be subject to the inspection of the common council or 
any committee thereof. 

§ 9. The common council of said city shall have power and it shall be their 
duty to raise from time to time by tax, to be levied upon all the real and per- 
sonal estate in said city which shall be liable to taxation for the ordinary city 
taxes or for city and county charges, such sums as may be determined and certi- 
fied by the said board of education to be necessary and proper for any or all of 
the following purposes : 

1. To purchase, lease or improve sites for school-houses ; 

2. To build, purchase, lease, enlarge, alter, improve and repair school-houses, 
and their out-houses and appurtenances; 

3. To purchase, exchange, improve and repair school apparatus, books, furni- 
ture and appendages; but the power herein granted siiall not be deemed to 
authorize the furnishing with class or text books any scholar whose parents or 
guardian shall be able to furnish the same ; 

4. To procure fuel and defray the contingent expenses of the common schools, 
and the expenses of the school library of said city, and the necessary contingent 
expenses of said board, including the salary of the secretary of the board ; 



OSWEGO. 429 

5. To pay teachers' wages, after the application of public moneys which may 
by law be appropriated and provided for that purpose ; provided, nevertheless, 
that the tax to be levied as aforesaid, and collected by virtue of this act, shall be 
collected in the same manner as other city taxes ; 

6. The amount raised for teachers' wages and contingent expenses shall not bo 
less than twice nor more than six times the amount appropriated to said citj^ from 
the common school fund of the state during the previous year ; nor shall the 
amount necessary to be raised in any one year for buying sites, erecting and 
repairing school-houses and the appurtenances, exceed four thousand dollars, 
except as herein otherwise provided for. And the common council are authorized 
and directed, when necessary, to borrow in anticipation the amount of taxes so to 
be raised, collected and levied as aforesaid. 

§ 10. All moneys to be raised pursuant to the provisions of this act, and all 
school moneys by law appropriated to or provided for said city, shall be paid 
to the treasurer of said city, who, together with the sureties upon his official bond, 
shall be accountable therefor in the same manner as for other moneys of said city. 
The said treasurer shall be liable to the same penalties for official misconduct, in 
relation to the said money, as for any similar miscOTiduct in relation to other 
moneys of said city. 

§ 11. All moneys required to be raised by virtue of this act, or received by said 
city for the use of the common schools therein, shall be deposited for the safe 
keeping thereof with the treasurer of said city, to the credit of said board of 
education, until drawn from said treasurer as hereinafter provided for ; and the 
said treasurer shall keep the fund, authorized by this act to be received by him, 
separate and distinct from any other funds which he is or may by law be author- 
ized to receive. 

The treasurer shall pay out the moneys, authorized by this act to be received 
by him, upon drafts drawn by the president and countersigned by the secretary 
of said board of education, which draft shall not be drawn except in pursuance 
of a resolution or resolutions of said board, and shall be made payable to the per- 
son or persons entitled to receive said money. 

§ 12. The said board may cause a suit or suits to be prosecuted in the 
name of the city of Oswego, upon the. official bond of the treasurer or of any 
collector of said city, for any default, delinquency or official misconduct in 
relation to thecollection, safe keeping and payment of any money in this act 
mentioned. 

§ 13. The said board shall have power to and it shall be their duty : 

1. To organize and establish sucli and so many schools in said city, including 
the common schools now existing therein, as they shall deem requisite and expe- 
dient, and to alter and discontinue the same ; 

2. To purchase and hire school-houses and rooms, lots or sites for school- 
houses, and to fence and improve them as they may deem proper ; 

3. Upon such lots and upon such sites, owned by said city, to build, enlarge, 
alter, improve and repair school-houses, out-houses and appurtenances, as they 
may deem advisable ; 

4. To purchase, exchange, improve and repair school apparatus, books for 
indigent pupils, furniture and appendages, and to provide fuel for the schools, 
and defray the contingent expenses of the school library ; 

5. To have custody and safe keeping of the school-houses, out-houses, boolis, 
furniture and appurtenances, and to see that the ordinances of the common coun- 
cil in relation thereto be observed ; 

6. To contract with, license and employ all teachers in said schools, and at 
their pleasure to remove them. The office of superintendent of schools in said 
city is hereby abolished ; 

7. To pay the wages of such teachers out of the moneys appropriated and pro- 
vided by law for the support of common schools in said city, so far as the same 
shall be sufficient, and the residue thereof from the money authorized to be raised 
for that purpose by section nine of this act, by tax upon said city ; 



430 OSWEGO. 

8. To^defray the necessary and contingent expenses of the hoard, including the 
annual salary of the secretary of the board, provided the account of the expenses 
shall first be audited and allowed by the common council ; 

9. To have in all respects the superintendence, supervision and management of 
the common schools of said city, and from time to time to adopt, alter, modify 
and repeal, as they may deem expedient, rules and regulations for their organi- 
zation, government and instruction, or the reception of pupils and their transfer 
from one school to another, and generally for their good order, prosperity and 
utility ; 

10. Whenever, in the opinion of the board of education, it may be advi- 
sable to sell any of the school-houses, lots or sites, or any of the school pro- 
perty now or hereafter belonging to the city, to report the same to the common 
council ; 

11. To prepare and report to the common council such ordinances and regula- 
tions as may be necessary and proper for the protection, safe keeping, care and 
preservation of school-houses, lots and sites and appurtenances, and all the pro- 
perty belonging to the city connected with or appertaining to the schools, and to 
suggest proper penalties for the violation of such ordinances and regulations ; and 
annually, on or before the first day of June in each year, to determine and certify 
to the said common council the sums in their opinion necessary or proper to be 
raised under the ninth section of this act for the year commencing on the first 
day of July thereafter, specifying the amount required for each of the purposes 
therein mentioned, and the reason therefor ; 

12. To unite with the town superintendent of schools of an adjoining town, and 
form, regulate and alter any district out of any portion of the said city and 
adjoining town, whenever they shall deem it necessary and proper to do so ; and 
so far as such joint district or districts are concerned, such board shall, during 
the existence of such districts, have the same powers and duties which the town 
superintendents of schools now have ; 

13. Between the first day of July and the first day of August, in each year, to 
make and transmit to the county clerk, or such other officer as may be designated 
by law, a report in writing, bearing date the first of July, in the year of its trans- 
mission, and stating : 

I. The number of school-houses in said city, and an account and description of 
all common schools kept -in said city during the preceding year, and the time 
they have severally been taught ; 

II. The number of children taught in said schools respectively, and the number 
of children over the age of four years and under the age of twenty-one years 
residing, in said city on the first day of January, in each year ; 

III. The whole amount of school moneys received by the treasurer of said city 
during the preceding year, distinguishing the amount received from the city 
treasurer, from the city tax, and from any other sources ; 

lY. The manner in which such moneys have been expended, and whether any 
and what part remains unexpended, and for what cause; 

V. The amount of moneys received for tuition fees from foreign pupils during 
the year, and the amount paid for teachers' wages in addition to the public 
moneys,' with such other information relating to the common schools of said city 
as may from time to time be required by the State Superintendent of Common 
Schools. 

§ 14. Each school commissioner shall visit all of the schools in said city at least 
twice in each year of his official term ; and said board of education shall provide 
that each of said schools shall be visited by a committee of three or more of their 
number at least once in each term. 

§ 15. The said board of education shall have power to allow the children of 
persons not resident in said city to attend the schools of said city, under the con- 
trol and care of said board, upon such terms as said board shall by resolution 
prescribe, fixing the tuition which shall be paid therefor. 

§ 16. It shall be the duty of said board, in all their expenditures and contracts, 
to have reference to the amount of moneys which shall be subject to their order, 



OSWEGO. ^ 431 

during the then current year, for the particular expenditures in question, and not 
to exceed that amount. 

§ 17. The said board of commissioners shall be trustees of the school libraries 
in said city ; and all the provisions of law which now are or hereafter may be 
passed relative to school district libraries shall apply to said commissioners, in 
the same manner as if they were trustees of a school district comprehending said 
city; they shall also be vested with the same discretion, as to the disposition of 
the moneys appropriated by the laws of this state for the purchase of libraries, 
which is therein conferred on the inhabitants of school districts. It shall be their 
duty to provide room or rooms and the necessary furniture therefor. The librarian 
shall report to the board the condition of the library or the libraries under their 
charge ; and the said board, or secretary thereof under the direction aiid by the 
resolution of said board, may make all purchases of books for said library or 
libraries, and may direct the mode of their distribution, and may cause to be 
repaired damaged books belonging thereto, and may sell any book in said library 
or libraries that may be deemed useless, and apply the proceeds to the purchase 
ot other books for said library or libraries. 

§ 18. The title of the school-houses, sites, lots, furniture, books, apparatus and 
appurtenances, and all other school property in this act mentioned, shall be vested 
in the city of Oswego, and the same while used or appropriated for school pur- 
poses shall not be levied or sold by virtue of any warrant or execution, nor be 
subject to taxation for any purpose whatever ; and the said city in its corporate 
capacity shall be able to take hold of and dispose of any personal or real estate 
transferred to it by grant, gift, bequest or devise for the use of the common 
schools of said city, whether the same be transferred in terms to said city by its 
proper style or by any other designation, or to any person or persons or body 
for the use of said schools. 

§ 19. The common council of said city shall, upon the recommendation of said 
board of education, sell any of the school-houses, sites, lots, or any of the school 
property now or hereafter belonging to said city, upon such terms as the common 
council shall deem reasonable ; the proceeds of all such sales shall be paid to the 
treasurer of said city, and shall be by said board expended in the purchase, 
repairs or improvements of school-houses, lots, sites or school furniture, appara- 
tus or appurtenances. 

§ 20. It shall be the duty of said board, at least fifteen days before the annual 
election for commissioners, in each year to prepare and report to the common 
council true and correct statements of the receipts and disbursements of moneys 
under and in pursuance of the provisions of this act during the preceding year, 
in which account shall be stated, under appropriate heads : 

1. The moneys raised by the common council under the ninth section of 
this act ; 

2. The school moneys received by the treasurer of the city from the county 
treasurer ; 

3. The moneys received by the treasurer of the city under the ninth section of 
this act; 

4. All other moneys received by the treasurer of said city, subject to the order 
of the board, specifying the sources from which they shall have been derived ; 

5. The manner in which such sums of money shall have been expended, speci- 
fying the amount under each head of expenditure ; and the common council 
shall, ten days before such election, cause the same to be published in all of the 
newspapers of said city. 

§ 21. The common council shall have power, and it shall be their duty, to pass 
such ordinances and regulations as the said board of education may report as 
necessary for the protection, preservation, safe keeping and care of the school- 
houses, lots, sites appurtenances and appendages, libraries, and all necessary 
property belonging to or connected with the schools of said city, and to impose 
proper penalties for the violation thereof, subject to the restrictions and limita- 
tions contained in the act to incorprate the said city ; and all such penalties 
shall be collected in the same manner that the penalties for the violations of the 



432 PHELPS. 

city ordinances are by law collected ; and when collected shall be paid to tlie 
treasurer of the city, to the credit of the said board of education, and shall be 
subject to their order in the same manner as other moneys raised pursuant to the 
provisions of this act. 

§ 22. It shall be the duty of the clerk of said city, immediately after the elec- 
tion of any person as commissioner of common schools, personally or in writing 
to notify him of his election ; and if any such person shall not, within ten days 
after receiving such notice of his election, take and subscribe the constitutional 
oath, and file the same with the clerk of said city, the common council may con- 
sider it as a refusal to serve, and proceed to supply the vacancy occasioned by 
such refusal ; and the person so refusing shall forfeit and pay to the city trea- 
surer, for the benefit of the schools of said city, a penalty of ten dollars. 

" § 23. It shall be the duty of said board of education to ascertain and report 
to the common council of said city the amount of any and all indebtedness of 
each of the common school districts within said city, and to whom due and when 
and how payable ; and the common council shall have power, and it shall be their 
duty, in each year that any such indebtedness shall become due, to cause the 
sums so becoming due from any of said districts to be assessed upon and collected 
from the taxable property within said city, for the payment of such indebtedness, 
in the same manner that other taxes are assessed and collected for the use of said 
board of education, and in addition to the sums authorized and required to be 
raised under the ninth section of this act." 

" § 24. The connection of territory within and without said city, in joint dis- 
tricts, is hereby .annulled; and the property of said districts, so far as the same is 
situated within said city, shall be disposed of in the manner now provided by law 
in the case where a district is annulled, except that the portion of the proceeds 
of such property as would by law be apportioned among the taxable inhabitants of 
said districts residing within the city of Oswego shall be paid to the treasurer 
of said citj', to the credit of the said board of education, and shall be expended 
by said board in the purchase, repairs or improvement of school-houses, lots, 
sites, or school furniture, apparatus or appurtenances." 

§ 25. This act shall take effect immediately on the passage thereof, and all acts 
and parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed. 



PHELPS. 

[ Laws of 1855, chap. 553. ] 

Section 1. The inhabitants of school district number eight, in the town of 
Phelps, county of Ontario, shall at the next election of a trustee of said district, 
and at such election every third year thereafter, elect two additional trustees 
thereof, making the whole number of trustees thereof five. The two additional 
trustees shall respectively hold their offices for three years, and until others are 
elected in their respective places. 

§ 2. The trustees of said district shall have authority to make regulations 
respecting the attendance of the children of the district in the departments 
thereof, the transfer of them from one department to another, and the instruction 
and studies to be given and perused in the departments thereof. 

§ 3. The said trustees and their successors in office are hereby created a body 
corporate, by the name of " Phelps union and classical school," and empowered 
to establish and organize a classical school by that name in said district and vil- 
lage of Phelps ; which school shall be subject to the visitation of the regents of 
tlie university of this state, and to all laws and regulations applicable to the 
incorporated academies thereof, and sliall be entitled to all the privileges of such 
academies, and to share in the distribution of the moneys of the literature fund 
of this state, as the academies thereof; provided however that this act shall 
not affect the rights and duties of said trustees and district under the statutes of 
this state relating to common schools. 



POUGHKEEPSEE. 433 

POUGHKEEPSIE. 
[Laws of 1854, chap. 90.J 

TITLE X. OF SCHOOLS AND THE BOARD OP EDDCATION. 

Section 1. There shall be elected in said city at every annual election four 
commissioners of schools, who shall hold their office for three years. At the first 
elections to be held under this act, twelve commissioners shall be chosen ; and at 
the first meeting of the boai-d of education, hereby constituted, after such election, 
the said commissioners shall draw lots for their terms of office, so that four shall 
draw to hold for one, four for two, and four for three years, and their respective 
terms of office shall expire accordingly. 

§ 2. In case of vacancy in the office of any such commissioners, or in case no 
person shall be elected thereto by reason of two or more persons having an equal 
number of votes, the common council shall appoint an inhabitant of the city to 
fill the same, and the person appointed shall hold his office until the next election 
of commissioners of common schools. 

§ 3. The said commissioners shall meet on the Tuesday next after the annual 
election and organize as a board of education ; they shall elect one of their num- 
ber to be president, who shall possess the powers and discharge the duties of a, 
town superintendent of schools, so far as the same may be necessary, and not 
inconsistent with this act; they may employ a clerk at a reasonable compensa- 
tion, and a librarian to have the charge of the public library, who shall be paid a 
reasonable salary out of the school funds of the city. They shall have the charge 
and control of the public schools in the city of Poughkeepsie, and shall exercise 
the powers and discharge the duties, in respect to said schools, both of trustees 
of school district and of town superintendent under the statutes of this state ; they 
shall also have charge and control of the district school library, which shall be 
hereafter known as the city library of Poughkeepsie, and may make all :necessary 
and proper regulations concerning the same ; and they may appropriat-e for the 
benefit of said library, out of the moneys annually raised in said city by the school 
tax, an amount not exceeding one hundred and fifty dollars in addition to tlie 
library money received from the state. 

§ 4. It shall be the duty of the board of education to make to the common 
council of the city of Poughkeepsie an annual report, on or befere the first Tues- 
day in February of each year, setting forth the number and condition of each 
school under their charge, a detail of all the expenses and liabilities incurred, with 
all disbursements made by them during the past year, and all other particulars 
relating to the schools. In their annual report, the said board of education shall 
determine and certify the amount of money which, when added to the money 
annually apportioned to the said corporation out of the funds belonging to the 
state, will in their judgment be necessary to support all the schools under their 
superintendence for the then current year. The said amount shall in no case 
exceed three times the amount which shall have been apportioned out of the funds 
belonging to the state, as aforesaid, for the year next preceding. The said coun- 
cil shall cause said report of the board of education, with a statement of the city 
chamberlain, showing the amount received by him during the same year for the 
support of schools from all sources and the disbursement or expenditure thereof, 
to be published once in every newspaper printed in said city. 

§ 5. If such amount so certified shall not exceed four thousand dollars, the 
council of said city shall have power to levy and collect the same, or any less 
amount which they may deem proper, at the same time and in the same manner 
as other general city taxes are levied and raised ; and a separate column shall be 
provided in the general tax roll of said city, in which shall be inserted the amount 
of tax assessed for the support of schools. 

§ G. If the said board of education shall at any time recommend the raising 
of more than four thousand dollars, in any year for the support of schools, the 

[Code.] 55 



434 POTJGHKEEPSIE. 

said council shall submit the question — whether the excess above four thousand 
dollars shall be raised — to the electors of said city, being tax payers entitled to 
vote at special tax elections, according to the provisions of this act at an election 
to be held in the manner in which special taxes are directed to be submitted to 
said electors according to the provisions of the act. If a majority of the votes 
cast at such special election shall be given in favor of raising the amount recom- 
mended by the board of education, the same shall be levied and collected in the 
manner prescribed by this act for school taxes. If a majority of such votes shall 
be given against raising such amount, the said council shall proceed to raise such 
amount as they shall deem necessary, but not exceeding four thousand dollars, 
in the manner provided in this act for the support of schools. 

§ 7. If the said board of education shall deem the purchase or erection of an 
additional school-house proper or necessary, they may recommend the same in 
their annual report, stating the location they propose, the cost of a lot, and a plan 
and estimate for a building. The council shall thereupon submit the question of 
the purchase or erection of such school-house to the electors, being tax payers 
entitled to vote special taxes under this act, at an election to be held in the man- 
ner provided by this act in voting special taxes. The said electors shall vote by 
ballots, on which shall be written or printed, For a school-house and Against a 
school-house ; if a majority of tlie votes at such election shall be cast for a school- 
house, and not otherwise, it shall be the duty of the common council to purchase 
a lot and building or to purchase a lot and erect a school in such location as they 
may deem best; the cost of building and furnisliing such school-houae shall in 
no case exceed three thousand dollars, and the expense thereof may be defrayed 
by a general tax, which shall be levied and collected in the same manner with 
other school taxes, or by a loan on the credit of the city, which the mayor and 
council shall have power to pledge for that purpose, in the same manner as is by 
this act provided in relation to loans by said city, as the said cox^ncil shall deem 
best. 

§ 8. The chamberlain of the city of Poughkeepsie is hereby designated as the 
person to receive all public money which said city or the schools therein are or 
shall be entitled to receive from the state. All moneys levied and raised for the 
support of common schools in said city, shall be paid to said chamberlain, and he 
shall pay out all the said moneys which shall so be in his hands for the support 
of schools, upon the resolutions of the board of education, certified by the clerk, 
or upon drafts or orders of said board, made in pursuance of such resolutions, 
and refei'ring thereto, signed by the presiding officer of said board and counter- 
signed by the clerk thereof, and not otherwise. 

§ 9. The board of education shall cause an enumeration of all the children 
within said city, between the ages of four and twenty-one years of age, to be 
made annually by or before the first day of July in every year, and the president 
of said board shall report the number of such children at the time and in the 
manner required by law of town superintendents of schools. [ The residue of 
this section is repealed by chap. 180 of 1856, Nos. 30 and 31, ante.] 

§ 10. The said board may establish, and cause to be kept, a separate school for 
the instruction of colored children. 

§ 11. The services of the board of education designated by this act shall be 
gratuitous, except that the president shall receive ten dollars for making the 
report and performing such other duties as are by this act directed to be performed 
by him as a town superintendent of schools. Any person elected a member of 
this board who shall refuse to qualify and serve or to perform the duties of his 
office, shall forfeit and pay ten dollars, to be recovered in a proper action to be 
brought for the same by the city, and the money to be applied to the benefit of 
the city library, under the direction of the board of education. 

§ 12. If any person elected a commissioner of schools shall resign his office 
after having duly qualified, such resignation shall not be accepted by the common 
council, to whom all such resignations shall be made, unless the person desiring 
to resign shall pay to the city chamberlain the sum of ten dollars, which shall 
be applied for the benefit of the city library by the board of education. 



PULASKI. 435 

§ 13. The said board may make regulations respecting the use. and imposing 
fines or penalties for or abuse of books belonging to the city library; and any 
pei'son incurring any such fine or penalty shall be liable to an action for tho 
same by the city, and the amount received shall be applied as aforesaid to the 
use of the library. 

§ 14. The title to all property, real or personal, now held by the board of edu- 
cation of the village of Poughkeepsie is hereby vested in and confirmed to the city 
of Poughkeepsie hereby incorporated. 

By section 6, chap. 316 of 1852, the children instructed in the schools of the 
Poughkeepsie Female Guardian Society are to participate in the apportionment 
If of the school fund according to the average number in attendance. 



PULASKI. 

[iawsqf 1853, chap. 305, as amended hy chap. 567 o/"1855. ] 

Section 1 . All that part of school districts numbers twenty-five, seven and thirty, 
lying within the village of Pulaski, and the parts of the districts adjacent thereto, 
lying within the boundaries of said village, are hereby consolidated, and shall 
hereafter form but one school district, to be called " The Pulaski school district," 
provided that the consolidation of said districts and parts of districts into one 
district shall not interfere with the rights, privileges and duties of the trustees 
of the said respective districts and parts of districts in relation to the past winter 
terms of said schools respectively ; but for the purpose of closing said terms and 
collecting and paying teachers' wages and all other charges relating thereto, 
or any other arrearages or debts, their povv-ers and duties shall remain and con- 
tinue as if this act had not passed. 

§ 2. Charles H. Cross, Hiram Murdock, Anson R. Jones, George Garley, Don 
A. King, Anson Malby, Newton M. Wardwell, Samuel Woodruff and William H. 
Lester are hereby appointed trustees of said district, to be divided by lot, at their 
first meeting, into three classes, to be numbered one, two and three, to hold their 
oflSces as follows : class number one until the next annual meeting, which shall 
be held on the first Tuesday of October next, at which there shall be elected three 
trustees to supply their place ; class number two until the next aniiual meeting 
thereafter ; and class number three until the next annual meeting thereafter ; and 
at each annual meeting there shall be elected three trustees to supply the place 
of those whose terms shall then expire. If at any meeting so annually held there 
shall be a failure to elect said trustees, the class whose term would then expire 
shall hold until others are duly elected in their stead. Notice of the annual or 
any special district meeting may hereafter be given by posting the same in three 
public places in said village, and also publishing in the newspaper printed in said 
village, if any shall be published therein, and the same shall be deemed a valid 
and sufficient notice for all purposes. 

§ 3. The trustees of said district and their successors in office shall constitute 
a board of education for said district, and, for the purposes of this act, in addition 
to the present powers and duties of trustees, are hereby constituted a body 
politic and corporate, by the name and style of " The Board of Education of the 
village of Pulaski;" and said corporation shall have power to establish and 
organize a classical school in said village, to be known by the name of " The 
Pulaski academy," and such classical school shall be subject to all laws and 
regulations applicable to other incorporated academies of this state, and shall 
be. entitled to share in the distribution of the moneys of the literature fund 
upon the same terms as other academies of this state ; and the regents of the 
university shall recognize said academy as such as soon as the required sura of 
money shall be expended in buildings and competent teachers employed therein. 



436 PULASKI. 

§ 4. Such board of education shall appoint one of their number president of 
said board, who shall preside at the meetings of said board when present ; when 
absent a president pro tempore shall be appointed in his stead. They shall also 
appoint one of their number secretary, who shall record all the acts, doings and 
resolutions of said board, and, in the absence of the secretary, a secretary pro 
tempore shall be appointed to discharge such duties. They shall also appoint a 
collector, librarian and treasurer of said district, who shall respectively hold their 
offices one year from their appointment and until others are appointed in their 
places, unless sooner removed by said board ; such collector, librarian and 
treasurer shall each, within ten days after notice of their appointment in writing, 
and before the entering upon the duties of their office, execute and deliver to said 
board of education a bond, in such penalty and with such sureties as said board 
may require, conditioned for the faithful. discharge of the duties of his office; in 
case such bond shall not be given within ten days after receiving such notice, 
such office shall thereby become vacated, and said board shall thereupon make 
an appointment to supply such vacancy. 

§ 5. The said board of education shall have power to fill any vacancy which 
may happens by the reason of death or the removal from the said district, or 
otherwise, and the officer so appointed shall hold his office for the unexpired time 
of tlie person to supply whose place he shall be so appointed. 

§ 6. Said board of education shall possess all the powers and be subject to all 
the duties, in respect to said district, that the trustees of common schools now 
possess or ai-e subject to, and such other powers and duties as are given or im- 
posed by this act, in addition to the powers now vested in them by law. 

§ 7. The taxable inhabitants of said district, at any annual, special or adjourned 
district meeting, legally held, may vote to raise such sum of money as they shall 
deem- expedient, not exceeding nine thousand dollars, for the purpose of purchasing 
a site, and building a school-house or school-houses in said district, or for the pur- 
pose of purchasing any suitable building for siich purpose, and furnishing the same 
with the necessary furniture, maps, globes and other suitable apparatus, and direct 
the trustees to cause the same to be levied and raised, by tax upon the real and 
■personal estate within the bounds of said district which shall be liable to taxation 
■for the ordinary taxes of said village or for town or county cliarges, by instal- 
ments, and make out a tax for the collection of the same as often as such instal- 
ments shall become due ; and the legal voters at any such meeting are authorized 
to fix the compensation for collecting and paying over to the treasurer of said 
board the amount so levied. They shall have power also in like manner to raise 
such sum or sums as shall be deemed necessary for the payment of teachers' wages 
or the general purposes of education in said villase. [As amended by § 1, chap. 
567 of i855. ] 

§ 2. The. inhabitants of the town of Richland are hereby authorized to raise by 
tax on the said town, in the same manner as other town taxes are levied and col- 
lected, a sum not exceeding four thousand dollars by annual instalments or other 
to be determined by said inhabitants at any town meeting legally assembled, and 
the same, when so raised and collected, shall be paid to the treasurer of the 
board of education in said village, to be expended by said board for the purposes 
mentioned in the first section of this act. [Sec. 2, chap. 567 0/1855. The section 
referred to is the preceding.] 

§ 8. The board of education are hereby authorized to obtain by loan the whole 
or any part of the money, legally voted by said district, for the purchase of a site 
and the erection of buildings, and secure the payment of the same by tlieir official 
bond. 

§ 9. The said board of education are hereby authorized and empoM-ered to sell 
at public auction to the highest bidder, or at private sale, the school-houses and 
sites thereof belonging to or situated in said district, the title to all of which is 
hereby vested in them, and hold and use the proceeds therefor for the benefit of 
said district. 

§ 10. The said board of education are hereby empowered and authorized to 
make such by-laws and regulations as they may deem necessary to secure the 



PULASKI. 43'r 

prosperity, order and government of said school, and to divide the same into pri- 
mary and h'io:her departments, and regulate the transfer of scholars from one 
department to the other, and provide suitable instructors for each department ; 
direct what text books shall be used in the same ; to establish such primary or 
infant school or schools as they shall deem requisite and expedient, and to alter 
and discontinue the same ; to purchase or hire school-houses, rooms, lots or sites 
for school-houses, and to fence and improve the same as they may think proper ; 
to purchase, exchange, improve and repair school apparatus, books, furniture and 
appendages ; to purchase fuel and all other necessaries for the use of the school 
or schools in said district, and to pay the contingent expenses thereof; to pay the 
wages of all teachers employed in the school or schools in said district out of the 
public money and funds applicable thereto; to fix and regulate the terms of 
tuition fees in said primary and other higher branches in said school or schools ; 
to sue for and collect in their corporate name anj' sum of monej' or tuition fees 
due to said district ; and all contracts made by them in their official capacity 
shall be binding upon them and their successors in office ; to receive and apply 
to the use of said school or schools, or any department thereof, any gift, legacy, 
bequest or annuities given or bequeathed to said board, and to apply the same 
according to the instruction of the donor or testator ; to take and hold any real 
estate given or bequeathed to said board for the purpose of said school or schools, 
or any department thereof, and apply the proceeds thereof according to the terms 
and instructions of the donor or testator; to have in all respects the supervision, 
management and control of said school or schools, and any and every department 
thereof, and hire, pay and discharge any teacher or teachers employed by them 
in said school or schools or department thereof. 

§ 11. The report now required by law to be made to the town superintendents 
of common schools shall be made by said board of education, and the public 
moneys payable to said district shall be payable by him to the treasurer thereof. 

§ 12. Said board of education shall have power and are hereby authorized to 
receive into said academy, and cause to be instructed therein, any pupil or pupils 
residing in or out of said district, and to regulate and establish the terms of tuition 
fees of such resident or non-resident pupils, and said board of education shall have 
power to regulate the tuition fees and rates of charges for instruction, and to 
graduate the same according to the branches pursued in the higher English and 
classical departments of said academy ; the tuition fees in said academy shall not 
exceed three dollars each per quarter for pupils whose parents or guardians reside 
within the territory of said district ; for all other pupils said tuition fee shall not 
be more than five dollars each per quarter. 

§ 13. After applying the i)ublic moneys applicable thereto to the support of 
said school or schools in said districts, in payment of the salaries and wages of 
teachers employed therein, said board of education shall, unless the same shall 
have been previously raised, cause such additional sura as may be required, to 
pay said wages and salaries of teachers and other contingent expenses necessary 
to the support of such academy and school or schools, to be assessed and levied 
upon the taxable property of said district, and collected in the manner provided 
by law for the collection and assessment of school district taxes in the several 
towns of this state ; not more than two taxes for such purpose shall ever be raised 
in one year ; warrants for the collection of taxes in said district to be issued under 
the hand and seal of the president or the major part of said board. 

§ 14. All moneys raised in said district for the purpose of said school or schools, 
and all moneys to be received by such district from the common school fund or 
other source, shall be paid to the treasurer of said district, to be paid by him on 
the warrant of said board of education, and to be applied by them for the use of 
said school or schools, according to the provisions of this act. 

§ 15. The libraries of said districts number twenty-five, seven and thirty are 
hereby consolidated into one, and the title thereto vested in said board of educa- 
tion, as trustees of said district; and the library money payable to said district 
shall be paid to the treasurer thereof, and drawn on the warrant of and expended 
by said board for the use of said trustees. 



438 ROCHESTER. 



ROCHESTER. 

[ Cliap. 262, Laws of 1850, as amended by chap. 389 of 1851, chap. 306 o/ 1852, 
chap. 240 of 1853 and chap. 568 of 1855.] 

Bj^ § 9 of title II., two commissioners of common schools are required to be 
ammally elected in each ward on the first Tuesday in March. 

"For the election of commissioners of common schools the electors of each 
ward shall deposit their ballots, containing the name of one person designated for 
the office; the two persons having the highest number of votes shall be declared 
to be elected; no ballot which contains more than one name shall be counted." 
§ 17. By § 30, in case a vacancy shall occur in the office, " the common council 
may, in their discretion, fill such vacancy by the appointment of a suitable person 
who is an elector, and if appointed for a ward or district, who is a resident of the 
ward or district for which he shall be appointed ; and any officer appointed to fill 
a vacancy, if the office is elective, shall hold, by virtue of such appointment, only 
until the first Monday of April next succeeding. If an elective officer, whose 
office shall have become vacant, was one of a class, a successor for the unexpired 
term shall be elected at the next annual election." 

By § 32 every person so elected or appointed to the office of commissioner shall, 
before he enters on the duties of his office, and within five days after being notified 
of such election or appointment, take the oath of office prescribed by the consti- 
tution of the state, before some officer authorized to take affidavits to be read in 
courts of justice, and file the same with the clerk of the city ; and by § 34 
his neglect to do so, or if required by the common council to execute an official 
bond or undertaking, the neglect to execute and file the same in manner and within 
the time prescribed by the common council shall be deemed a refusal to serve. 

TITLE VI SCHOOLS AND BOARD OP EDUCATION. 

§ 161. The sever?,! wards of the city of Rochester shall constitute one school 
district, for all purposes except as herein otherwise provided, and the schools 
therein shall be free to all children between the ages of five and sixteen [twenty- 
one] residing in such wards. 

§ 162. The titles of the school houses, sites, lots, furniture, books, apparatus 
and appurtenances, and all other school property in this act mentioned, shall, 
within three months from the passage of this act, be transferred and conveyed by 
the trustees of the several school districts in the said city to the said city of 
Rochester. 

§ 163. The several school districts now in the city of Rochester shall, within 
fhree months from the passage of this act, deliver over to and place in the care 
of the board of education, hereinafter mentioned, all school district records, 
account books, vouchers, contracts, papers and other school porperty ; and the 
said school officers of the said city and the several school districts thereof shall 
continue in office until the unfinished business of said districts shall have been 
finally closed up and settled, not exceeding three months after the passage of this 
act, with all the power and duties now by law imposed upon them for the purpose 
of closing such unfinished business. 

§ 164. The common council of said city may, upon the recommendation of the 
board of education hereinafter mentioned, sell any of the school-houses, lots or 
sites, or any other school property now or hereafter belonging to said city, upon 



ROCHESTER. 439 

such terms as the said common council may deem reasonable. The proceeds of 
all such sales shall be paid to the city treasurer of the city, and shall be by the 
said common council again expended in the purchase, repairs or improve- 
ments of other school-houses, lots, sites or school furniture, apparatus or appur- 
tenances. 

§ 165. The commissioners of common schools in said citj"^ shall constitute a 
board to be styled the " Board of Education of the city of Rochester," which 
shall be a corporate body in relation to all the powers and duties conferred upon 
them by virtue of this act; they shall meet on the first Monday of each and 
every month, and as much oftener as they shall from time to time appoint; a 
majority of the said board shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of 
business. The said board shall appoint one of their number president, who shall, 
wlien present, preside at all the meetings of said board, and shall have power to 
call special meetings of the board, in the manner described by this act for the 
calling of special meetings of the common council. In the absence of the presi- 
dent, the board shall appoint some other member to preside at such meetings and 
perform the duties of the president. No member of said board of education 
shall, during the period for which he was elected, be appointed to or be competent 
to hold any office of which the emoluments are paid from the city treasurj^, or 
paid by fees dii ected to be paid by any act or ordinance of the board of education, 
or be directly or indirectly interested in any contract, as principal, surety or 
otherwise, the expenses or consideration whereof are to be paid under any 
ordinance of the board of education. 

§ 166. The said commissioners shall annually appoint a city superintendent of 
common schools, who shall hold his office during the pleasure of the board, and 
whose compensation shalKbe fixed by the said board; the said superintendent 
shall officiate as clerk of the board, and shall keep a record of the proceedings 
of the board, and perform such other duties as the board may prescribe. The 
said record, or a transcript thereof certified by the president and clerk, shall be 
received in all courts as prima facie evidence of facts therein set forth ; and such 
records, and all the books, accounts, vouchers and papers of said board shall at 
all times be subject to the inspection of the common council and of any committee 
thereof. 

§ 167. The common council of said city shall have the power, and it shall be 
their duty, to raise from time to time, by tax to be levied equally upon all the real 
and personal estate in said city which shall be liable to taxation for the ordinary 
citj' taxes or for city or county charges, such sum or sums of money as may be 
necessary or proper for any or all the following purposes : 

1. To purchase, lease or improve sites for school-houses; 

2. To build, purchase, lease, enlarge, impi'ove, alter and repair school-houses 
and their out-houses and appurtenances ; 

3. To purchase, improve, exchange and repair school apparatus, books, furniture 
and appendages; 

4. To procure fuel aed defray the contingent expenses of the common schools; 

5. To i)ay the wages of teachers due after the application of the public moneys 
which may by law be appropriated and provided for that purpose ; provided, 
nevertheless, that the tax to be levied as aforesaid and collected by virtue of this 
act shall be collected at the same time and in the same manner as other city 
taxes ; 

6. And the amount to be raised for teachers' wages and contingent expenses, in 
any one year, shall not be less than one dollar nor more than one dollar and 
seventy-five cents for every scholar of school age within said city, according to 
the annual enumeration of the previous year. Nor shall the amount to be raised 
in any one year to lease, alter, improve and repair school-houses and their out- 
houses and appurtenances exceed three thousand dollars. Nor shall the amount 
to be raised in any one year to purchase and improve sites, and build or enlarge 
school-houses, exceed ten thousand dollars ; and the common council of said city 
are authorized and directed, when necessary, to raise by loan, in anticipation of 
the taxes, the moneys so to be raised, collected and levied as aforesaid. 



440 ROCHESTER. 

§ 168, All moneys to be raised pursuant to the provisions of this act, and all 
school moneys by law appropriated to or provided for said city, shall be paid to 
the city treasurer thereof, who, together with their sureties upon his olHcial bond, 
shall be accountable therefor in the same manner as for other moneys of said 
city. The said city treasurer shall be liable to the same penalties for any official 
misconduct, in relation to the said moneys, as for any similar misconduct in rela- 
tion to other moneys of said city. 

§ 169. The said " board" shall have power, and it shall be their duty: 

1. To establish and organize in the several wards of said city such and so many 
schools ( including the common schools now existing therein ) as they shall deem 
requisite and expedient, and to alter and discontinue the same; 

2. To hire school-houses and rooms, and improve them as they may deem 
proper ; 

3. To alter, enlarge, and improve and repair school-houses and appurtenances, 
as they may deem advisable ; • 

4. To purchase, exchange, improve and repair school apparatus, furniture and 
appendages, and to defray their contingent expenses ; 

5. To have the custody and safe keeping of the school-houses, out-houses, 
fences, books, furniture and appendages, and to see that the ordinances of the 
common council in relation thereto be observed ; 

6. To contract with, license and employ all teachers in said schools, and at their 
pleasure to remove them ; 

7. To pay the wages of such teachers out of the moneys appropriated and pro- 
vided by law for the support of schools in said city, so far as the same shall be 
sufficient, and the residue thereof from the money authorized to be raised for 
that purpose, by section one hundred and sixty-seven of this act, by tax upon 
said city ; 

8. To defray the necessary contingent expenses of the board, including an 
annual salary to the superintendent ; 

9. To have in all respects the superintendence, supervision and management 
of the common schools in said city, and from time to time to adopt, alter, modify 
and repeal, as they may deem expedient, rules and regulations for their organi- 
zation, government, visitation and instruction, for the reception of pupils and their 
transfer from one school to another, and generally for the promotion of their good 
order, prosperity and public utility ; 

10. Whenever in the opinion of the board it may be advisable to sell any of 
the school-houses, lots or sites, or any of the school property now or hereafter 
belonging to the city, to report the same to the common council ; 

11. To prepare and report to the common council such ordinances and regu- 
lations as may be necessary or proper for the protection, safe keeping, care and 
preservation of school-houses, lots and sites, and appurtenances, and all the 
property belonging to the city connected with or appertaining to the schools, 
and to suggest proper penalties for the violation of such ordinances and regula- 
tions ; and, annually, on or before the first day of September on each year, to 
determine and certify to said common council the sums in their opinion necessary 
or proper to be raised under the one hundred and sixty-seventh section of this 
act, specifying the sums required ( for the year commencing on the first day of 
April thereafter ) for each of the purposes therein mentioned, and the reasons 
therefor ; 

12. Between the first day of January and the fifteenth day of January, in each 
year, to make and transmit to the county clerk, or such other officer as may be 
designated by law, a report in writing, bearing date the first day of January in 
the year of its transmission, and stating: 

I. The number of school-houses in said city, and an account and description 
of all the common schools kept in said city during the preceding year, and the 
time they have severally been taught ; 

II. The number of children taught in said schools respectively, and the number 
of children over the age of five [ four ] years and under the age of sixteeen 
[ twenty-one] years residing in said city on the last day of December previous; 



ROCHESTER. 441 

HI. The whole amount of school jnoneys received by the city treasurer of 
said city during the year preceding, distinguishing the amount received from the 
county treasurer from the city tax, and from any other source ; 

IV. The manner in which such moneys had been expended, and whether any, 
and what part remains unexpended, and for what cause ; 

V. The amount of money received for tuition fees from foreign pupils 
during the year, and the amount paid for teachers' Avages, in addition to the 
public moneys, with such other information relating to the common schools of 
said city as may from time to time be required by the State Superintendent of 
Common Schools. 

§ 170. The said board of education shall have power to allow the children of 
persons' not resident within the city to attend any of the schools of said city iinder 
the care and control of said board, upon such terms as said board shall by reso- 
lution prescribe, fixing the tuition which shall be paid therefor. 

§ 171. It shall be the duty of said board in all their expenditures and contracts 
to have reference to the amount of moneys which shall be subject to their order 
during the then current year for the particular expenditure in question, and not 
to exceed that amount ; and they shall apply the moneys levied, raised and received 
by them for the support of common schools in said city in such a manner as shall 
secure equal educational advantages to all the children of said city over five and 
under sixteen [twenty-one] years of age, by continuing the schools in each district 
an equal period, as near as may be. 

§ 172. The said board of commissioners shall be trustees of the school library 
or libraries in said city, and all the provisions of the law which now are or here- 
after may be passed relative to district school libraries shall apply to the said 
commissioners. They shall also be vested with the same discretion, as to the dis- 
position of the moneys appropriated by any laws of this state for the purchase of 
libraries, which is therein conferred upon the inhabitants of school districts. It 
shall be their duty to provide for the safe keeping of the libraries. The city 
superintendent shall be the general librarian. The board shall also appoint a 
librarian for each school, to have the care of the books and to superintend the 
letting out and return thereof The several school librarians shall, from time to 
time, inform the general librarian of the state and conditionof their libraries; and 
the said board, or the general librarian under the direction or by resolution of 
the said board, may make all purchases of books for the libraries, and provide 
for their equitable distribution among the schools, and exchange or cause to be 
repaired the damaged books belonging thereto, and also to sell any books which 
may be deemed useless, and apply the proceeds to the purchase of other books 
for said libraries. 

§ 173. It shall be the duty of the said board, at least twenty days before the 
annual election for commissioners in each year, to prepare and report to the com- 
mon council true and correct statements of the receipts and disbursements of 
money under and in pursuance of the provisions of this act, during the preceding 
year, in which account shall be stated under appropriate heads : 

1. The money raised by the common council under the one hundred and sixty- 
seventh section of this act ; 

2. The school moneys received by the city treasurer of the city ; 

3. The moneys received by the common council, under the one hundred and 
sixty-seventh section of this act ; 

4. All other moneys received by the city treasurer, subject to the order of the 
board, specifying the same and sources; 

5. The manner in which such sums of money shall have been expended, specify- 
ing the amount paid under each head of expenditure. And the common council 
shall, ten days before such election, cause the same to be published in at least 
two of the newspapers published in said city. 

§ 174. The common council of the said city shall have the power to pass such 
ordinances and regulations as the said board of education may report as necessary 
and proper for the protection, safe keeping, care and preservation of the school- 
houses, lots, sites, appurtenances and appendages, libraries and all necessary pro- 

fCoDE.] 56 



442 ROCHESTER. 

i.)erty belonging to or connected with the schools in said city, and to impose 
proper penalties for the violation thereof, subject to the restrictions and limitations 
contained in this act; and all such penalties shall be collected in the same manner 
that the penalties for the violation of the city ordinances are by law collected, and 
when collected shall be paid to the city treasurer of the city, and be subject to 
the order of the board of education in the same manner as other moneys raised 
pursuant to this act. 

§ 175. It shall be the duty of the common council, within fifteen days after 
receiving the certificate of the commi.ssioners required by the one hundred and 
si.\ty-ninth section of this act of the sums necessary or proper to be raised under 
the one hundred and sixty-seventh section of this act, to determine and certify to 
said board of education tlie amount that will be raised by them for the year com- 
mencing on the first Monday of April thereafter for the purposes mentioned in 
said one hundred and sixty-seventh section, distinguishing between the amount to 
be raised for teachers' wages and contingent expenses and the amount to be raised 
for the repair of school-houses ; and in case the said common council shall neglect 
or fail to certify to the board of education the amount that will be raised by them 
within thirty days, as above specified, then the said common council shall raise 
the several amounts embraced in the certificate of the board of education, as 
specified tlierein, which amounts shall be subject to the disposal of the board of 
education. 

§ 176. All the moneys required to be raised by virtue of this act or received by 
the said city for or on account of the common schools shall be deposited for the 
safe keeping thereof with the city treasurer of said city, to the credit of said 
board of education, and shall be drawn out, in pursuance of a resolution or reso- 
lutions of said board, by drafts drawn by the president and countersigned by the 
clerk of said board, payable to the order of the person or persons entitled to 
receive such moneys, and said city treasurer shall keep the funds authorized by 
this title to be received by him separate and distinct from any other fundwhich 
he is or may by law be authorized to receive. 

§ 177. The real and personal estate in each of the school districts numbers 
fourteen and sixteen, as at present existing, shall be assessed toward defraying 
the expense of building a school-house in each of said districts, respectively, as 
follows : Number fourteen a sum not exceeding two thousand dollars, and num- 
ber sixteen a sum not exceeding one thousand dollars, and the balance which 
may be found necessary to complete the school-houses in said districts fourteen 
and sixteen, respectively, shall be paid out of moneys authorized to be raised by 
section one hundred and sixty-seven of this act, to build and enlarge school- 
houses. 

§ 178. The said board of education shall have power to establish and cause to 
be kept such number of schools in said city for the instruction of colored children 
as they shall deem expedient. 

§ 179. The said board of education shall possess all the power and be subject 
to all the duties and responsibilities of trustees of common schools in the towns, 
in respect to the school mentioned in the last preceding section, so far as the same 
are applicable ; and shall pay the compensation of the teachers of the said schools, 
and all the other expenses thereof, out of the moneys raised by tax under this 
act for the support of common schools ; and, until such schools for the instruction 
of colored children shall be so provided, it shall not be lawful to impose any tax 
upon the property of any colored person in said city for the support of common 
schools. 

§ 180. Whenever the said board of education shall determine to establish any 
school for the instruction of colored children, they shall divide the said city into 
convenient districts for the accommodation of such children, and enter the boun- 
daries thereof on their records ; they shall make an estimate of the expense of 
erecting a suitable school-house in each of said districts, and determine the sites 
thereof respectively, and report all their doings under this section to the common 
council. 



SALEM. 443 

§ 181. The common council shall have power to raise by general tax, in the 
manner hereinbefore provided, and on a separate warrant, such sum as shall be 
necessary to build a school-house in each of the said districts, or in as many of 
them as they may deem expedient, not exceeding in the aggregate the sum of 
five thousand dollars, or the said common council may refuse to raise such tax. 

§ 182. In case the common council shall refuse to raise such tax, the said board 
of education shall have power to provide and lea.se suitable rooms or buildings 
for the accommodation of such schools or either of them ; but the annual expen- 
diture for this purpose shall not exceed the sum of five hundred dollars. 



SALEM. 

[Laws of 1851, chap. 206. 1 

§ 88. The board of trustees [of the village of Salem] aforesaid shall, within 
twenty days after the passage of this act, appoint six commissioners of schools. 
The persons so appointed shall, within five days after their appointment, take 
the oath of ofiice prescribed by the constitution of this state for state officers, 
and file the same with the clerk. 

§ 89. The board of trustees shall divide the said commissioners into three 
classes, to be denominated first, second and third, and shall designate to which 
class each person so appointed shall belong. The term of office of the first class 
shall expire on the last Monday in April next thereafter; of the second, in one 
year; and the third, two years from the said last Monday in April. 

§ 90. There shall be elected at the ne.xt annual election thereafter two com- 
missioners of schools, and each year thereafter the like number, to supply the 
places of those Mhose term is about to expire ; and the term of office shall be 
three years, except when (elected or) appointed to fill a vacancy. [ -4s amended 
by chap. 31 of 1853. ] 

§ 91. The board of trustees may make appointments to fill vacancies which 
may occur from any cause other than the expiration of the term of office of those 
elected. The commissioners so appointed shall hold their offices for the unex- 
pired term of those to supply whose places they are appointed. 

§ 92. The president of the board of trustees, together with the said commis- 
sioners, shall constitute a board to be styled " The Board of Education of the 
village of Salem," and shall be a corporate body in relation to all the powers 
and duties conferred or imposed by law. In the absence of said president, such 
board may appoint one of their number to preside. A majority of such board 
shall be a quorum. No member of such board shall receive any compensation 
for his services. The clerk of said village shall be clerk of said board. 

§ 93. The clerk of said board of education shall keep a record of the pro- 
ceedings thereof, and perform such other duties as the board may prescribe; 
such record, or a transcript thereof certified by such cleric under the seal of the 
said board, shall be presumptive evidence of the facts therein set forth; and 
such record, and all the books, Accounts and proceedings of said board, shall be 
subject to the inspection of said board of trustees, and of any committee thereof. 
Such clerk shall also perform all the duties, and shall be vested with all the 
powers conferred or imposed by law on clerks of school districts in towns, so far 
as such laws may be applicable and can be applied to such village, and are not 
inconsistent with this act. He may appoint a deputy, who shall be vested with 
the same powers. 

§ 94. The board of trustees aforesaid shall have power, and it shall be their 
duty, to raise from time to time by tax, upon the taxable property and persons 
in such village which shall be liable to taxation for county purposes, in addition 
to the amount now or hereafter to be provided by law for common schools in said 
village, such sums as may be determined and certified by said board of education 
to be necessary for any or all of the following purposes : 



444 SALEM. 

1. To purchase, lease or improve sites for school-houses and appurtenances; 

2. To build, purchase, lease, enlarge, alter, improve and repair school-houses 
and their out-houses and appurtenances ; 

3. To purchase, exchange, improve and repair school apparatus, books, maps 
and charts, furniture and appendages; provided, however, that class or text 
books shall not be furnished for any scholars whose parent or guardian shall be 
able to furnish the same ; 

4. To procure fuel and defray the contingent expenses of schools and of the 
school library ; 

5. To pay teachers' M'ages ; 

6. To pay charges or expenses incurred by law or necessary to carry this act 
into effect, or to refund loans contracted by law and to pay the interest thereon, 
or to pay such sums as shall be required to fulfil any contract duly made under 
the provisions of this act. 

§ 95. The board of trustees shall cause the amount of such school tax to be 
added, in a separate column, to the assessment roll for ordinary taxes in said 
village ; and they shall cause the same to be assessed, levied and collected at the 
same time and by the same warrant, and in the same manner with the taxes raised 
for village purposes as aforesaid. 

§ 96. All moneys raised for school purposes in said village, and all belonging 
thereto payable from other sources, shall be paid to the treasurer of said village, 
who, together with the sureties on his official bond, shall be accountable therefor 
in the same manner as for other moneys of the said village. The treasurer shall 
also be liable to the same penalties,, for any official misconduct in relation to 
such moneys, as for any similar misconduct in relation to other moneys'of said 
village. 

§ 97. The treasurer shall keep a separate account of all moneys in his hands 
or received for school purposes, to be called the " school fund." No payment 
shall be made out of that fund, except upon orders duly drawn, in pursuance of a 
resolution of said board of education, and certified by the clerk and countersigned 
by the president of said board. The treasurer shall in his annual report state 
fully the account of all receipts and disbursements from that fund during the year, 
and the balance, if any, in his hands. His account as to the school fund shall be 
examined by the board of education annually, who shall report thereon to the 
trustees. 

§ 98. The said board of education shall have power, and it shall be their 
duty : 

1. To establish and organize such and so manj'' schools in said village, including 
the common schools therein, as they shall deem requisite and expedient, and to 
alter and discontinue or change and consolidate the same ; 

2. To purchase or hire school-houses and rooms and lots or sites for school- 
houses, and to fence, improve and repair them as they shall judge expedient; 

3. Upon such sites or lots, or upon any lots owned by said village, to build, 
enlarge, alter, improve and repair school-houses, out-houses and appurtenances, 
as thf j^ may deem advisable ; 

4. To purchase, exchange, improve and repair school apparatus, books for 
indigent pupils and for the school library, to prQvide fuel and lights, furniture 
and appendages for the schools, and defray their contingent expenses and the 
expenses of library ; 

5. To have the custody and safe keeping of the school-houses and all the school 
properly aforesaid, and to see that the ordinances of the board of trustees in 
regard thereto be observed, and to report to them any violation thereof; 

6. To contract with, examine, license and employ all teachers in the schools, 
either high or common, and in all branches or departments thereof, and at their 
pleasure to remove them ; 

7. To pay the wages of such teachers out of the school moneys which shall be 
appropriated and provided by the said village, so far as the same shall be sufficient, 
and the residue thereof from the money authorized to be raised by this act by 
tax as aforesaid ; 



SALEM. 445 

8. To defray the necessary contingent expenses of the board of education, 
provided that the account of such expenses shall be first audited and allowed by 
the board of trustees ; 

9. To have in all respects the superintendence, supervision and management of 
the schools aforesaid ; to adopt, alter, modify and repeal, as they may deem expe- 
dient, rules and regulations for their organization, government and instruction, 
for the reception of pupils and their transfer from one school to another, and 
generally for their good order, prosperity and public utility ; 

10. Whenever in the opinion of the board of education it may be advisable 
to sell any of the school-houses, lots or sites, to report the same lo the board of 
trustees ; 

11.' To prepare and report to the board of trustees such ordinances and regula- 
tions as may be necessary and proper for the pi'otection, safe keeping, care and 
preservation of property held for school purposes, and to suggest proper penalties 
for the violation thereof; and annually to determine and certify to said board the 
sums in their opinion necessary to be raised for the several school purposes 
specified in this act ; 

12. To provide for the payment to any adjoining school district, or any person 
or persons entitled thereto, of any sum on account of such person, or any part of 
said district being or having been included or connected with territory not now 
included in said village ; 

13. Between the first day of July and the first day of August, in each year, to 
make and file with the county clerk and with the clerk of said village a report, in 
writing, bearing date the first day of July in each year, and stating : 

I. An account and description of all the schools kept in said village during the 
preceding year, and the time they have severally been taught; 

11. The number of children taught in said school, respectively, and designating 
the number over five and under sixteen years of age residing in said village on 
the first day of January in said year ; 

III. The whole amount of school moneys receii'ed by the treasurer of said 
village during the year preceding, designating the amount received from the 
county treasurer, from the village collector and from other sources, specifying the 
same ; 

IV. The manner in which such moneys have been expended, and whether any 
part remained unexpended, with the amount and cause thereof; 

V. The amount of moneys received for tuition fees from foreign pupils or others 
during the j'ear; the amount paid for teachers' wages in the aggregate, and the 
amount over and above the public moneys ; together with such other facts as relate 
to common schools as is required by law to be reported by town superintendents, 
or as said board of trustees shall deenr necessary ; 

14. To establish, organize and maintain in said village, whenever in their opinion 
it shall be necessary, a union or consolidated school, composed of primary and 
secondary schools, and a high school, on such plan and under such discipline 
and management as they shall deem advisable ; and in such case to prescribe the 
course of studies therein, and so arrange and regulate the system of instruction in 
each of said schools that the transfer of pupils shall thereafter be from the pri- 
mary directly into the secondary, and thence into the high school or otherwise, 
as they shall deem advisable. And for the purposes aforesaid, said board shall 
be vested with all the powers and charged with all the duties and liabilities above 
specified in regard to schools generally. 

Arid said board may organize and maintain primary, secondary or high schools 
or either of them in, or cause the same to be taught in connection with, the 
Washington academy, on such terms and conditions, and for such time, not 
exceeding ten years, as shall be deemed expedient by and between said board of 
education and the trustees of such academy; such arrangement shall, if made, be 
by contract duly executed by said parties, but no such contract sliall he made 
without the assent of the board of trustees of said village ; and in such case said 
board of education are vested with power to make such ru'es and regulations as 
they shall see fit as to age or degree of scholarship required to enter said several 



446 SALEM. 

departments, the compensation and payment therefor and other terms thereof, and 
the time of continuance therein. 

§ 99. Such board of education shall have a standing committee, consisting of 
not less than three members, whose duty it shall be to yisit said schools and each 
department thereof as often as twice every term, and to make report ^n writing 
to said board in regard thereto. 

§ 100. The said board of education may permit children of persons not resident 
within said village to attend said schools on such terms as they shall prescribe; 
and said board may, in the name of said village, sue for or recover of the father 
or mother, master or mistress, or other person under whose charge such child or 
children may be, all such sums as shall be so prescribed, with costs of sujt. 

§ 101. The board of education shall be trustees of the district library or libra- 
ries in said village. All the provisions of law which now are or hereafter may be 
passed, relating to school district libraries, shall apply to the said commissioners 
and board of education, so far as the same are applicable and can be applied, 
and are not inconsistent with this act, in the same manner as if they were trustees 
of a school district composed of the said village. They shall be vested with the 
discretion as to the disposition of library moneys which is by law conferred upon 
the inhabitants of school districts, and they may consolidate the said libraries, or 
dispose of parts thereof, as deemed best. It shall be their duty to provide a 
library room or rooms, and the necessary furniture therefor, appoint a librarian, 
make all purchases of books, exchange or cause to be repaired all damaged 
books, and sell those deemed useless or of an improper character, and apply the 
proceeds to the purchase of others. 

§ 102. No trustee of said village or member of said board of education shall 
be a contractor or be interested in any contract for building or making any 
erections or repairs authorized by this act, or furnishing materials therefor. All 
contracts made in violation hereof shall be void, so far as any benefit may be 
realized therefrom by the ofiender, and such person shall forfeit to said village 
fifty dollars, to be recovered by them before any court having cognizance of the 
same, with costs. 

§ 103. The board of trustees of said village may pass such ordinances and 
regulations as they may deem necessary, or as shall be reported by said board 
of education, for the protection, safe keeping, care and maintenance of the school- 
house or other property connected with the schools, or property held or occupied 
or used for school purposes, and to impose penalties for the violation thereof, 
subject to the restrictions contained in this act ; and all such penalties shall be 
collected in the same manner as other penalties imposed by said board, and when 
collected shall be paid to the treasurer, to the credit of the school fund, and be 
subject to the order of the board of education. 

§ 104. Whenever the said board of education shall report to the trustees that 
it is advisable to sell any of the school property as aforesaid, the said trustees 
shall sell the same as soon as may be, and upon such terms as said trustees shall 
deem best. The proceeds of all such sales shall be paid to the treasurer, to the 
credit of the school fund. 

§ 105. The title of the school-house and other school property aforesaid shall 
be vested in the trustees of the village of Salem ; and the same, while used or 
kept for use for school purposes, shall not be levied on or sold by virtue of any 
process, or be subject to taxation for any purpose ; nor shall the same be incum- 
bered or in any way disposed of, except as authorized by this act. The said 
village, in its corporate capacity, may take, hold or dispose of any real or per- 
sonal estate transferred to it by gift, grant or devise, for the use or benefit of 
said schools, or any of them, and whether the same shall be transferred, given, 
granted or devised in terms to said village by its proper style, or by any other 
designation, or to any other designation, or to any person or persons, or body 
or otherwise, for the use or benefit of said schools or either of them. 

§ 106. The town superintendent of common schools of the town of Salem, in 
making the apportionment of school or library moneys among the several 
districts in said town, shall allot to said village such sum as shall be its propor- 



SALEM. U1 

tion of such moneys, considering such village as a regular school district of said 
toAvn, and the report of the board of education as the report of its trustees. 
Such superintendent shall allot to said village, in the apportionment to be made 
on the first Tuesday of April, 1851, such sum as school districts number eleven 
and twelve in said town would be entitled to had said village not been consoli- 
dated into one district. All sums allotted as aforesaid shall be paid by said 
superintendent to the treasurer of said village, to the credit of the school fund 
aforesaid, at the same time and in the same manner as to trustees of school 
districts in said town. 

§ 107. Said board of education shall, between the first and fifteenth of January 
in each year, make and transmit a report in writing to the town superintendent of 
common schools of the town of Salem, bearing date on the first day of January 
in such year, and containing a statement of the name and age ot each child 
residing in the said village, on the last day of December previous to the date of 
said report, over the age of five and under that of sixteen years of age, except 
Indian children otherwise provided for by law, and the names of the parents or 
other persons with M-hora such children shall respectively reside, and the n umber 
of childi-en residing with each. Such report shall be the only report required to 
be made in order to entitle such allotment, as required in the last section. Said 
schools in said village, and said board of education, shall not in any other respect 
be bound to report to said superintendent ; nor shall such schools or the teachers 
thereof be in any wise under his control or supervision. 

§ 108. In case said board of education shall contract with the trustees of the 
Washington academy, as authorized in this act, they are further empowered to 
lease from said trustees the academy building and grounds adjacent, or contract 
for the joint or several occupation of the same, or so much thereof or such privi- 
leges therein or appertaining thereto, on such conditions, and for such time, not 
exceeding two years, as they shall deem advisable. And they may pay in advance 
to such trustees such gross sum for the rent thereof, for such term as, being 
calculated with a proper rebate for the advance payment, shall be deemed by said 
board no more than a fair equivalent for the use and occupation thereof for the 
pm-poses required under this act. And such sum as shall be necessary for 
the purposes aforesaid, not exceeding one thousand dollars, may be loaned by the 
comptroller to said village out of any moneys belonging to the common school 
fund, on receiving from the board of trustees of said village the bond of said 
village therefor, payable in five equal payments with annual interest. The moneys 
received thereon shall be paid to the treasurer, to the credit of the school fund, 
and shall be drawn out in the same manner as other moneys in that fund ; pro- 
vided, however, that no such contract shall be made, nor any loan obtained by said 
board of education, without the previous assent of the board of trustees of said 
village. In case said loan shall be made, said trustees shall annually raise during 
each of said five years by tax, in the same manner and at the same time as other 
village taxes are raised, such sum as, over and above the expenses of collection 
will pay the several instalments so to grow due on such loan, with the interest. 

§ 109. Any contract, lease or agreement made or executed by said board of 
education with the trustees of the Washington academy, under the provisions of 
this act, may be vacated, modified or renewed by the parties aforesaid, by and 
with the assent of the board of trustees of said village ; provided no renewal 
thereof shall be made for a term exceeding ten years at any one time. 

§ 110. All the property, real and personal, belonging to the districts number 
eleven and twelve shall be and is hereby transferred to and vested in the trustees 
of the village of Salem for school purposes ; and they are authorized to take the 
same into their possession, and hold, use and occupy the same, and exercise the 
same powers in regard thereto, as if they had purchased the same for school pur- 
poses under this act ; and the present trustees and officers of said districts are 
hereby required to deliver possession thereof, and of all books, papers and 
vouchers connected therewith, to said board, and said board may sue for and 
recover the same with costs of suit of any person having the same or any part 
thereof. 



448 SCHENECTADY. 

§ 111. All debts and legal liabilities of said school districts number eleven and 
twelve shall be audited, paid, satisfied and discharged by said board of education 
out of the school fund. 

§ 112. Each and everj'^ of the schools established or maintained under this act 
shall be free to the children of all residents of said village ; provided, however, 
that said board of education may cause the tuition fee to be charged and col- 
lected of the father or mother, master or mistress, or other person ( in whose 
charge such pupil may be ), residing in said village, of any pupil over sixteen 
years of age, or who shall pursue studies which said board shall' deem should not 
be tuilion free. For the purpose of collecting such fees, such board shall by 
general rules provide for the keeping of proper registers, in which shall be 
entered the name of every stich pupil, and his father or mother, master or 
mistress, or other person in whose charge such pupil may be, the length of time 
such pupil shall attend such school, 'and the tuition fee chargeable therefor. 
Immediately previous to tiie issuing of the warrant for the collection of the 
annual village tax, said board of education shall cause to be presented to the 
board of trustees an abstract from such registers, containing a statement of 
names of every such father or mother, master or mistress, or other person 
residing in such village, from whom any sum or amount was due for such tuition 
fees at the close of the term previous to the presentation of such lists. The 
annual tax list shall contain a column headed " tuition fees," in which shall be 
entered, opposite the name of such person, the amount so returned as aforesaid, 
which sum shall be included in the aggregate column to be collected under such 
warrant; and the same i^roceedings sliall be had for the collection thereof as for 
other village taxes ; and when collected the same shall be paid to the treasurer, 
to the credit of the school fund ; but such return so made shall not include 
the name of any person who shall, in the opinion of the board, be in indi- 
gent circumstances ; any person specified in such return may, at any time 
before the collection of said tuition fee, apply to said board of education for a 
remission of the same ; and if said board shall deem proper, they may by reso- 
lution, duly passed, remit the same in whole or in part, and the clerk shall certify 
such remission to the collector, and no further proceedings shall be had for the 
collection of the sum so remitted. 

§ 113. Nothing in this act contained shall prevent the trustees of the Wash- 
ington academy from receiving from the regents of the university any sum or 
allowance for pupils pursuing classical studies therein, or for organizing and 
maintaining a teachers' department therein. And any pupil in any of the depart- 
ments organized in said academy under the provisions of this act pursuing such 
classical studies as are required by the regents aforesaid, in order to be entitled 
to an allowance, and being of sufficient age, shall be included in the returns of 
said trustees to said regents, and they shall be entitled to the same allowance for 
such pupil or pupils as for other classical pupils heretofore. 



SCHENECTADY. 
[Laws o/1864, chap. 178.] 

Section 1. Alonzo C. Paige and Nicholas Van Vranken, of the first ward of 
the city of Schenectady, Dadd M. Moore and William N. Duane, of the second 
ward, Charles Chequer and Hiram Champion, of the third ward, and Demetrius 
M. Chadsey and Isaac G. Duryea, of the fourth ward, are hereby appointed com- 
missioners of common schools of said city. Such commissioners, within ten 
days after receiving notice of the passage of this act, shall take the oath of- oflBce 
prescribed by the constitution of this state, and file the same with the city clerk. 

§ 2. Within ten days after taking the oath of office, said commissioners shall 
meet in the common council rooms of said city, and shall determine by lot which 
of the two commissioners in each ward shall serve for the term ending on the 



SCHENECTADY. • 449 

second Tuesday of May, eighteen hundred and fifty-five, and which for the term 
enditig on the first Tuesday of May, eighteen hundred and fifty-six; but they 
may hold their offices until others are elected in ttieir places and have taken the 
oath of office. 

§ 3. In each year thereafter there shall he elected in said city, at a special 
election to be held on the first Tuesday of May, in each year, in the same manner 
and under the same regulations as other ward officers are elected, one commis- 
sioner of common schools for each ward, to supply the places of those whose 
terms are about to expire; they shall hold their offices for two years, and until 
others are elected and have taken the oath of office. The term of the office of 
all the commissioners, elected pursuant to this act, shall commence on the Tues- 
day next after the election. 

• § 4. The common council of said city may make appointments of commis- 
sioners of common schools, to fill vacancies which may occur from any other 
cause than the expiration of the term of office of those elected. The commis- 
sioners so appointed shall hold their office until the Tuesday next succeeding the 
next annual election ; and at each annual election there shall be chosen a com- 
missioner to supply the place of any person so appointed ; and the person thus 
elected shall serve out the unexpired term. 

§ 5. Any commissioner of common schools in said city may be removed from 
office for official misconduct, by the common council of said city, bj^ a vote of 
two-thirds of the members thereof; but a written copy of the charges preferred 
against said commissioner shall be served upon him, and he shall be allowed an 
opportunity of refuting any such charges of misconduct, before removal. 

i; 6. The commissioners of common schools in said city shall constitute aboard, 
to be styled " The Board of Education of the city of Schenectady," which shall 
be a corporate bodj' in relation to all the ])owers and duties conferred upon them 
by virtue of this act. A majority of the board shall constitute a quorum. The 
first meeting of said board shall be h.eld on the second Wednesday of May, eighteen 
hundred and fifty-four; and the annual meetings of said board, in each year 
thereafter, shall be held on the second Wednesday of May in each year. At the 
first meeting of the board, and annually thereafter at the anniial meeting, they 
shall elect one of their number president of the board, and whenever he shall be 
absent, a president pro tempore maybe appointed. The said commissioners shall 
receive no compensation for their services, nor shall they be interested, directly 
or indirectly, in any contract for building or for making any improvement or 
repairs provided for by this act. 

§ 7. The said commissioners shall meet for the transaction of business as often 
as once in each month, and may adjourn for any shorter time. Special meetings 
may be called by the president, or, in his absence or inability to act, by any mem- 
ber of the board, as often as necessary, by giving personal notice to each member 
of the board, or by causing a written or printed notice to be left at his last place 
of residence, at least twenty-four hours before the hour for such special meeting. 

' § 8. The said commissioners shall appoint a secretary and librarian, who shall 
hold his office during the pleasure of the board, and whose compensation shall be 
fixed by the board. The said secretary shall keep a record of the proceedings of 
the board, have charge of the libi'ary, and perform such other duties as the board 
may prescribe. The said record, or transcript thereof certified by the secretary, 
shall be received in all courts as prima facie evidence of the facts therein set 
forth ; and such record, and all the books, accounts, vouchers and papers of said 
board shall at all times be subject to the inspection of the common council or 
any committee thereof. 

§ 9. The common council of said city shall have power, and it shall be their 
duty, to raise from time to time, by tax, to be levied upon all the real and personal 
estate in said city which shall be liable to taxation for the ordinary city taxes or 
for city and county charges, in like manner as city charges or taxes are raised, 
such sums as may be determined and certified by said board of education to be 
necessary and proper for any and all of the following purposes : 

J. Code. | 57 



450 SCHENECTADY. 

1. To purchase, lease or improve sites for school-houses, or sites with buiMings 
thereon for the same purpose ; 

2. To build, purchase, lease, enlarge, alter, improve and repair school-houses, 
and their out-houses and appurtenances ; 

3. To purchase, exchange, improve and repair school apparatus, books, furni- 
ture and appendages; but the power herein granted shall not be deemed to 
authorize the furnishing with class or text books any scholar whose parents or 
guardian shall be able to furnish the same ; 

4. To procure fuel and defray the contingent expenses of the common schools, 
including the academical department therein and the expenses of the school 
library of said city, and the necessary contingent expenses of said board, includ- 
ing the salary of the secretaiy of the board, and the compensation allowed to the 
assistant librarians ; 

5. To pay teachers' wages, after the application of public moneys which may 
by law be appropriated and provided for that purpose ; 

6. The amount raised for teachers' wages and contingent expenses shall not be 
less than twice, nor more than six times the amount appropriated to said city 
from the common school fund of the state during the jjrevious year ; nor shall 
there be raised in any one year, for buying sites, or sites with buildings thereon, 
erecting and repairing school-houses and the appurtenances, a sum exceeding two 
thousand doUai's, except as herein otherwise provided for. And the common 
council are authorized and directed, when necessary, to borrow, in anticipation, 
the amount of taxes so to be raised, collected and levied as aforesaid, and to give 
the bonds of the city, signed by the mayor, and under the seal of the city, as 
security for the repayment of the moneys so borrowed. 

§ 10. All moneys to be raised pursuant to the provisions of this act, and all 
school moneys by law appropriated to or provided for said city, whether from the 
school or literature funds, or under the act to establish free schools throughout 
the state, or otherwise, shall be paid to the treasurer of said city, who, together 
with the sureties on his official bond, shall be accountable therefor in the same 
manner as for other moneys of said city. The said treasurer shall be liable to 
the same penalties for official misconduct in relation to the said money as for any 
similar misconduct in relation to other moneys of said city. 

§ 11. All moneys required to be raised by virtue of this act, or received by 
said city for the use of the common schools therein or of the academical depart- 
ment hereinafter mentioned, shall be deposited for the safe keeping thereof with 
the treasurer of said city, to the credit of said board of education, until drawn 
from said treasurer as hereinafter provided for ; and the said treasurer shall keep 
the fund authorized by this act to be received by him separate and disthict from 
any other funds which he is or may by law be authorized to receive. 

§ 12. The treasurer shall pay out the moneys authorized by this act to be 
received by him upon drafts drawn by the president and countersigned by the 
secretary of said board of education, which drafts shall not be drawn except in 
pursuance of a resolution or resolutions of said board, and shall be made payable 
to the person or persons entitled to receive said money. 

§ 13. The said board shall have power, and it shall be their duty : 

1. To organize and establish such and so many schools in said city as they shall 
deem requisite and expedient, and to alter and discontinue the same ; 

2. To purchase and hire school-houses and rooms, lots or sites for school- 
houses, or sites with buildings thereon to be used as school-houses, and to fence 
and improve such sites, as they may deem proper ; 

3. Upon such lots and upon such sites, owned by said city, to build, enlarge, 
alter, improve and repair school-houses, out- houses and appurtenances, as they may 
deem advisable ; 

4. To have the custody and safe keeping of the school-houses, out-houses, books, 
furniture and appurtenances, and to see that the ordinances of the common 
council in relation thereto be observed ; 

5. To contract with, license and emploj' all teachers in said schools and the 
academical department therein, and at their pleasure to remove them ; 



SCHENECTADY. 451 

6. To pay the wages of the teachers in said schools out of the moneys appro- 
priated and provided by law for the support of common schools in said city, and 
the wages of the teachers of the academical department out of the moneys 
appropriated to said department from the income of the literature and United 
States deposit funds, so far as the same shall be sufficient, and the residue of the 
wages of the teachers in said schools and academical department from the money 
authorized to be raised for that purpose, by section nine of this act, by tax upon 
said city ; 

7. To defray the contingent expenses of the said common schools and academi- 
cal department, and the expenses of the school library of said city, and the 
necessary and contingent expenses of the board, including the annual salary of 
the secretary of the board and the compensation allowed to the assistant librarians, 
provided the account of the expenses shall first be audited and allowed by the 
common council ; 

8. To have in all respects the superintendence, supervision and management of 
the common schools of said city, and from time to time to adopt, alter, modify 
and repeal, as they may deem expedient, rules and regulations for their organiza- 
tion, government aiid instruction, or the reception of pupils and their transfer 
from one school to another, and generally for their good order, prosperity and 
utility ; and to have power to establish in said schools an academical department, 
to receive into said schools or academical department pupils residing out of said 
city, and to regulate and establish the tuition fees of such non-resident pupils in 
the several departments of said schools and in such academical department, and 
to collect such fees in the name of the said city ; to regulate the transfer of 
scholars from the primary to the academical departments, to direct what text 
books shall be used in said schools and academical department, to provide and 
keep in repair school apparatus, books for indigent pupils, furniture and appen- 
dages, fuel and other necessaries for the schools and academical department ; and 
to appoint assistant librarians, as they may from time to time deem necessary, 
and to regulate their compensation ; 

9. Whenever in the opinion of the board of education it may be advisable to 
«ell any of the school-houses, lots or sites, or any of the school property now or 
hereafter belonging to the city, to report the same to the common council ; 

10. To prepare and report to the common council such ordinances and regula- 
tions as may be necessary and proper for the protection, safe keeping, care and 
preservation of school-houses, lots and sites and appurtenances, and all the 
property belonging to the city connected with or appertaining to the schools, and 
to suggest proper penalties for the violation of such ordinances and regulations ; 
and annually, on or before the first day of June in each year, to determine and 
certify to the said common council the sums in their opinion necessary or proper 
to be raised under the ninth section of this act for the year commencing on the 
first day of July thereafter, specifying the amount required for each of the pur- 
poses therein mentioned, and the reason therefor ; 

11. Between the first day of July and the first day of August, in each year, to 
make and transmit to the county clerk, or such other ofiBcer as may be designated 
by law, a report in writing, bearing date the first day of July, in the year of its 
transmission, and stating: 

I. The number of school-houses in said city, and an account and description of 
all common schools kept in said city during the preceding year, and the time they 
have severally been taught ; 

II. The number of children taught in said schools, respectively, and the number 
of children over the age of four years and under the age of twenty-one years 
residing in said city on the first day of January in each year ; 

III. The whole amount of school moneys received by the treasurer of said city 
during the preceding year, distinguishing the amount received from the city 
treasurer from the city tax and from any other sources ; 

IV. The manner in which such moneys have been expended, and whether any, 
and Avhat part, remains unexpended, and for what cause. 



452 SCHENECTADY. 

V. The amount of moneys received for tuition fees from foreign pupils during 
the year, and the amount paid for teachers' wages in addition to the public moneys, 
with such other information relating to the common schools of said city as 
may from time to time be required by the State Superintendent of Common 
Schools. 

§ 14. Each school commissioner shall visit all the schools in said city, at least 
twice in each year of his official term ; and said board of education shall provide 
that each of said schools shall be visited by a committee of three or more of their 
number at least once in each term. 

§ 15. It shall be the duty of said board, in all their expenditures and contracts, 
to have reference to the amount of moneys which shall be subject to their order 
during the then current year for the particular expenditures in question, and not 
to exceed that amount. 

§ 16. The said board of commissioners shall be trustees of the school libraries 
in said city ; and all the provisions of law which now are or hereafter may be 
passed, relative to school district libraries, shall apply to said commissioners in 
the same manner as if they were trustees of a school district comprehending said 
city ; they shall also be vested with the same discretion, as to the disposition of 
the moneys appropriated by the laws of this state for the purchase of libraries, 
which is therein conferred on the inhabitants of school districts. It shall be their 
duty to i)rovide room or rooms for such libraries, and the necessary furniture 
therefor. The librarian shall report to the board the condition of the library or 
the libraries under his charge ; and the said board, or secretary thereof under the 
direction and by the resolution of said board, may make all purchases of books 
for said library or libraries, and may direct the mode of their distribution, and 
may cause to be repaired damaged books belonging thereto, and may sell any 
book in said library or libraries that may be deemed useless, and apply the pro- 
ceeds to tlie purchase of other books for said library or libraries. 

§ 17. The title of the school-houses, sites, lots, furniture, books, apparatus and 
appurtenances, and otlier school property in this act mentioned, shall be vested 
in the city of Schenectady, and the same, while used or appropriated for school 
purposes, shall not be levied upon or sold by virtue of any warrant or execution, 
nor be subject to taxation for any purpose whatever; and the said city in its cor- 
porate capacity shall be able to take and hold any personal or real estate trans- 
ferred to it by grants, gifts, devise or bequest, in trust for the benefit of the com- 
mon schools of said city or of the academical department therein, whether the same 
be transferred in terms to said city by its corporate name, or by any other desig- 
nation, or to any person or persons or bodies for the benefit of said schools or 
academical department. 

§ 18. The common council of said city shall, upon the recommendation of said 
board of education, sell any of the school-houses, sites, lots or any of the school 
property now or hereafter belonging to said city, upon such terms as the common 
council shall deem reasonable ; the proceeds of all such sales shall be paid to the 
treasurer of said city, and shall be, by said board, expended in the purchase, 
repairs or other improvement of school-houses, lots or school furniture, apparatus 
or appurtenances. 

§ 19. It shall be the duty of said board, at least fifteen days before the annual 
election for commissioners in each year, to prepare and report to the common 
council true and correct statements of the receipts and disbursements of moneys, 
under and in pursuance of the provisions of this act, during the preceding year, 
in which account shall be stated, under appropriate heads : 

1. The moneys raised by the common council under the ninth section of this 
act ; 

2. The school moneys received by the treasurer of the city from the county 
treasurer ; 

3. The moneys rpceivgd by the treasurer of the city under the ninth section of 
this act ; 

4. All other moneys received by the trgasiirer of said city, subject to the order 
of tile board, specifying the sources from which they shall have been derived ; 



SCHENECTADY. 453 

5. The manner in which such sums of money shall have been expended, speci- 
fying the amount under each head of expenditure ; and the common council shall, 
at least ten days before such election, cause the same to be published in all news- 
papers of -said city. 

§ 20. The common council shall have power, and it shall be their duty, to pass 
such ordinances and regulations as the said board may report as necessary for 
the protection, preservation, safe keeping and care of the school-houses, lots, 
sites, appurtenances and appendages, libraries and all necessary property belong- 
ing to or connected with the schools of said city, and to impose such penalties for 
the violation thereof as the common council are authorized to impose by section 
nine of chapter one hundred and fifty-five of the Session Laws of 1848; and all 
such penalties shall be collected in the same manner that tlie penalties for the 
violations of the city ordinances are by law collected, and when collected shall br 
paid to the treasurer of the city, to the credit of the said board of education, aa 
shall be subject to their order in the same manner as other moneys raised pursuant 
to the provisions of this act. 

§ 21. It shall be the duty of the clerk of said city, immediately after the elec- 
tion of any person as commissioner of common schools, personally or in writing 
to notify him of his election ; and if any such person shall not, within ten days 
after receiving such notice of his election, take and subscribe the constitutional 
oath, and file the same with the clerk of said city, the common council may con- 
sider it as a refusal to serve, and proceed to supply the vacancy occasioned by 
such refusal, and the person so refusing shall forfeit and pay to the city treasury, 
for the benefit of the scho"ols of said city, a penalty often dollars. 

§ 22. The trustees of the Lancaster School Society may, in their discretion, at any 
time after the passage of this act, convey and transfer to the said city all its 
school-houses, sites, lots and all its other property of every name and description, 
both real and personal, and place in the care of the said board of education all 
school records, account books, vouchers, contracts, pa|)ers, and all other school 
property of said city. All the said school-houses, sites, lots and other real 
property, and the said personal property, shall be used and appropriated for 
school purposes, and shall form part of the school property of said city, and the 
proceeds of the same, when sold, shall be paid to the treasurer of the said city, to 
be expended by said board of education in the purchase, repair or improvement 
of school-houses, lots, sites, or of school furniture, apparatus and appurtenances, 
or in the repair or improvement of the same. 

§ 23. Every academical department to be established as aforesaid shall be 
under the visitation of the regents of the university, and shall be subject, in its 
course of education and matters pertaining thereto (but not in reference to the 
buildings or erections in which the same is conducted, unless in case the 
buildings or erections afoi'esaid are separate from those of the common school 
department), to all the regulations made in regard to academies by the said 
regents ; and in such department the qualifications for the entrance of any pupil 
shall be the same as those established by the said regents for admission into any 
academy of the state under their supervision. And such academical department 
shall share in the distribution of the income of the literature fund, and of the 
income of the United States deposit fund, with academies in the state subject to 
the visitation of the regents. 

§ 24. The said board of education shall have power to purchase, in the corpo- 
rate name of the city of Schenectady, from the trustees of Union College, and the 
said trustees of Union College shall have power to sell and convey to said city, 
the building called the West College, and the buildings connected therewith, and 
the site on which they stand, situate on Union-street, in said city, and lying 
between College-street and the Erie canal and the New- York Central railroad, 
for the use of the said common schools and academical department, and upon 
such trusts and upon such terms, and subject to such conditions, as shall be 
agreed upon by and between the said board of education and the said trustees of 
Union College ; and said buildings and premises, after the same shall be conveyed 
to the city of Schenectady, in pursuance of such agreement, shall be held by 



454 SENECA. 

said city for such uses and purposes, and upon such trusts and subject to such 
conditions, as shall be so agreed upon, and as shall be specified in the deed of 
conveyance. The preceding provisions of this act in relation to the purchase of 
school-houses, sites and lots, and other real property, and to the taking, holding, 
disposition and sale of the same, so far as the same are inconsistent with this 
section, shall not be applicable to the purchase, sale and conveyance authorized 
in this section. 

§ 25. The said board of education and the said trustees of Union College shall 
have power from time to time to enter into such contracts as they may deem 
expedient, in relation to the organization, superintendence and management of 
th« said academical department, the prescribing the course of studies and system 
of discipline, and the appointment and payment of the professors and teachers in 
such academical department ; and, also, in relation to the terms upon which the 
pupils in said academical department may receive books from the libraries of 
Union College, or attend the lectures of the professors in said college, or be 
admitted, when prepared, as members in full standing of its several classes. 
Such contracts, when entered into, shall be binding on said board of education 
and the said trustees of Union College, and shall be faithfully executed. The 
preceding provisions of this act, in relation to the powers and duties of said board 
of education in reference to the academical department, shall be deemed modified 
by this section, and such power and duties shall be exercised only in conformity 
to the contracts which may be entered into under this section. 

§ 26. This act shall extend over and be applicable to all the territory lying 
within the corporate limits of the said city ; and the oflace of town superintendent 
of common schools, so far as it is applicable to the said city of Schenectady, is 
hereby abolished. 

§ 27. This act shall take eflfect immediately, and all acts and parts of acts 
inconsistent with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed. 



SENECA. 
[Laws of 1844, chap. 175.] 

Section 1. It shall be lawful for the trustees of school district number one, in 
the town of Seneca, in the county of Ontario, at the next annual meeting of the 
district after the passage of this act, to submit for the consideration of such meet- 
ing a proposition graduating the rates of tuition to be paid by scholars attending 
the different departments into which such school is now divided ; if the same is 
approved or shall be so amended as to be approved by a majority of those present, 
qualified to vote in such meetings, such rates may be charged and collected, but 
they shall not be raised during the year next following their adoption. 

§ 2. At any annual meeting of the district, after such rates of tuition have been 
adopted, the same may be raised, reduced or entirely abolished, by a majority of 
such meeting. 

[Laws of 185S, chap. 252, as amended hy chap. 357 o/1855. ] 

Section 1. The inhabitants of school district number one, in the town of 
Seneca, in the county of Ontario, shall at the next election of a trustee of said 
district, and at each annual election thereafter, elect a trustee who shall hold his 
office for five years, and until another trustee is elected in his place, making the 
whole number of trustees thereof five. 

§ 2. At the annual election of said district, to be held in the year one thousand 
eight hundred and fifty-six, said district number one shall, in addition to the elec- 
tion of a trustee to fill the vacancy which will then occur, also elect a trustee who 
shall hold his office for two years, and shall also elect a trustee who shall hold 
his office for three years, and until others are elected in their places. 



SENECA. 45-5 

§ 3. The said trustees may, whenever they deem it necessary, call district meet- 
ings for the transaction of any business relating to said district, by publishing a 
notice of such meeting in any two of the public newspapers of the village of 
Geneva, or if there be but one such newspaper, then in such newspaper once in 
each week for two weeks in succession, and by posting a copy of such notice in 
three public places in said district, fourteen days before such meeting shall be 
held; such notice shall contain the time and_place of said meeting, and state the 
purpose thereof, and be signed by at least three of said trustees ; and the 
meeting held in pursuance thereof shall have all the powers and authority of a 
regular meeting of said district. 

§ 4. The said trustees or their successors are hereby authorized to employ a 
clerk, or such other official labor, counsel or assistant in and about the business 
and affairs of the district, at such salary as a majority of the legal voters of said 
district at any meeting thereof shall determine, which salary may be raised by a 
tax upon the inhabitants of said district. The said trustees may also, with the 
concurrence of a majority of the legal voters at anj- meeting of said district, raise 
by tax a sufficient sum for the purpose of insuring the property of the district 
against loss by fire, and also for the payment of a salary to the librarian of said 
district. 

§ 5. The said trustees are hereby authorized to raise by tax a sufficient* sum 
to pay the interest which has accrued or may hereafter accrue on the sums now 
voted by said district, to be paid by instalments ; and they may hereafter, at any 
meeting regularly called, raise by tax upon the inhabitants of said district, when- 
ever a majority of the legal voters there'of at such meeting shall so determine, 
any monej's for the purposes of said district, subject, however, to the consent of 
the Superintendent of Public Instruction, to be expressed in writing, which con- 
sent shall be filed in the office of the town clerk of said town of Seneca. 

§ 6. The trustees of said district shall have authority to make regulations 
respecting the attendance of the children of the district in the school-houses 
thereof, the transfer of them from one school-house to another, and the instruction 
and studies to be given and pursued in the schools thereof. 

§ 7. The inhabitants of said district, authorized to vote as aforesaid, shall at 
the first district meeting duly held for the election of officers, and every third 
year thereafter, and as often as the office becomes vacant, elect a suitable person 
treasurer of said district, who shall hold his office for three years and until a 
successor is elected or appointed in his place, unless sooner removed by the trustees 
of the district for misconduct in office ; to make which removal for that cause 
the trustees are hereby authorized, in which case and in case of a vacancy they 
may appoint a treasurer in his place. The person so elected or appointed treasurer 
shall give a bond to the trustees and their successors, by the name of the Geneva 
union school, with sufficient sureties, for the faithful discharge of his duties. 
The amount and form of such bond and the sufficiency of the sureties shall be 
settled and determined by the trustees. Such treasurer shall receive, keep and 
disburse the moneys of the district, under the direction of the trustees. 

§ 8. The said trustees and their successors in office are hereby created a body 
corporate, by the name of " the Geneva union school," and empowered to estab- 
lish and organize a classical school by that name in said district and village of 
Geneva, which school shall be subject to the visitation of the regents of the 
university of this state, and to all laws and regulations applicable to incorporated 
academies thereof, and shall be entitled to all the privileges of such academies, 
and to share in the distribution of the money of the literature fund of this state, 
as the academies thereof; provided, however, that this act shall not afiect the rights 
and duties of said trustees and district under the statutes of this state relating to 
common schools. 



456 ' SING SING. 

SING SING. 
[Laws of 1854, c^ap. 314.] 

Section 1. The village of Sing Sing shall forma permanent school district , 
and the electors residing within the bounds of said village, at their annual charter 
election, or at any time thereafter, upon the usual notice Iseing given, may deter- 
mine by a majority of votes, by ballot, upon the expediency of establishing free 
schools in said village. The trustees of the village shall conduct the election, 
and the ballots having written or printed on them the words " For free schools," 
or " Against free schools," shall be duly canvassed, and the result declared by 
them in the usual manner. 

§ 2. The trustees of said school district shall be elected in the manner and 
shall hold their offices for the terms prescribed by the common school law of this 
state ; and upon the decision of tlie legal voters of said village in favor of establish- 
ing free schools, it shall be the duty of the district trustees, on or before the first day 
of December of each year, to estimate, determine and certify the amount of money, 
m addition to the funds now provided by law and apportioned to the district, that 
will be required to support all the schools under their charge ; the said amount 
shall in no case exceed three times the whole amount of funds " for the support 
of schools" that shall have been apportioned for the year preceding. 

§ 3. The supervisors of the town of Ossining shall, on the presentation of the 
certificate of the said trustees, specifying the amount of school moneys necessary 
to be raised for said village, authorized by the preceding section, prepare a sepa- 
rate tax list and assess therein the required amount of school moneys upon the 
taxable property within the village, according to the estimated value thereof in 
the assessment roll of that year, and shall deliver such tax list to the town collec- 
tor, who shall collect the same, with the other yearly taxes, in the manner and 
by the authority with which other taxes are collected, and shall pay the whole 
amount certified to be necessary, exclusive of fees of collection, to the town super- 
intendent of schools of said town. 

§ 4. The town superintendent aforesaid shall have the authority and exercise 
the duties prescribed in the general school law of this state over the said school 
district, and shall pay out of the funds paid into his hands by virtue of the preced- 
ing section, upon the drafts of the trustees, such sums as may be certified by 
them to be due to qualified teachers that have been employed by them, and 
include such payments, with any balances or deficiences, in his annual report of 
the schools of his town to the department, and for record ; he shall also be author- 
ized, upon a vote of the inhabitants of the district at their annual meeting, or the 
application of the trustees, to apply the " library money" apportioned to the said 
district to the purchase of text books and school apparatus until the schools are 
sufficiently supplied. 

§ 5. The district trustees aforesaid shall be authorized to raise by tax, annually, 
for the purchase of fuel, ordinary repairs and improvement of the school property 
of the district, a sum not exceding one hundred dollars ; and in case of the 
enlargement, rebuilding or the erection of new school-houses, the said trustees 
shall be authorized to levy and raise on the taxable property of the district, with 
the assent of the town superintendent, the amount required for such object, which 
sum shall not exceed four times the usual amount authorized by law for building 
new district school-houses, which amount, so levied, shall be collected as other 
school moneys are, by the town collector, and paid to the treasurer of said trustees, 
who shall make an exhibit and statement of all such receipts and expenditui'es 
with his other accounts in his book, annually, as required by the school law 
aforesaid. 

§ 6. There shall be, after the establishment of free schools in said village on 
the preceding plan, no rate bill for the attendance of scholars or any other exac- 
tion whatever made out against or demanded by the trustees of any person send- 
ing children to such schools in the village of Sing Sing. 



SYRACUSE. 4.'>7 

SYRACUSE. 

[ Laws of 1854, chap. 28. ] 

Titles 3 and 7 provide for the election of two commissioners of common 
schools in each of the eight wards of the city, to hold office for two years j but 
so classified that one shall be elected each year. 

TITLE IX THE BOARD OP EDUCATION. 

§ 1. The commissioners of common schools of said city shall constitute a board 
of education. A majority of said commissioners shall constitute a quorum. The 
board shall meet annually, on the second Tuesday after the annual charter 
election, and appoint a president from their own number, and a clerk. The presi- 
dent shall have a vote on all questions, and in case of his absence a president pro 
tempore may be appointed. 

The compensation of the clerk shall be fixed by said board. The president and 
clerk shall hold their ofiices during the pleasure of the board. 

The commissioners shall receive no compensation for their services. 

§ 2. The clerk of said board shall keep a record of the proceedings thereof, 
and perform such other duties as the board may prescribe ; which record, or a 
transcript thereof certified by the president and clerk, shall be received in all 
courts as prima facie evidence of the facts therein set forth. And such records, 
and all the books and accounts of the said board, shall at all times be subject to 
the inspection of the common council and of any committee thereof. 

§ 3. The board of education shall annually report to the common council, on 
or before the first day of April, after the charter election, a detailed statement 
of the amount estimated by them to be necessary to be expended by said board, 
for each of the following jjurposes, for the current year : 

1. To defray the expenses of teachers' wages; 

2. To procure fuel and defray the necessary expenses of keeping the school- 
houses in order, exclusive of repairs ; 

3. To defray the expenses for janitors' services ; 

4. To defray the expenses of the district libraries ; 

5. To defray the contingent expenses of the board of education ; 

6. To defray the expenses of temporary repairs upon school-houses ; 

7. The amount of moneys on hand and the amount receivable during such 
year by said board for school purposes, other than from city taxes. 

§ 4. Upon the reception of the report, in the last section required to be made, the 
common council shall proceed to consider the same, and approve, increase or 
diminish any or all the said estimates, but they shall not diminish the aggregate 
amount so that the sum to be raised by the city shall be less than twice, nor 
increase the same so that the sum to be raised by the city shall be more than 
three times the amount received during the preceding year from the state for 
school purposes ; and after having fixed the amount to be expended for each and 
all the purposes mentioned in the last preceding section, the same shall be certi- 
fied to the board of education, who shall during such fiscal j^ear limit the 
expenditures for such purpose, so that the same shall not exceed such appropri- 
ation, and not lessen the length of the time each school shall be kept in each 
district. In case a greater sum shall be expended for any purpose than the 
appropriation, the city shall not be liable for the same, but the members of tho 
board of education voting therefor, or either of them, shall be personally liable 
therefor to the party entitled to payment. 

§ 5. The board of education shall have power, and it shall be their duty, 
subject to the provisions of this act : 

[Code. J 58 



458 SYRACUSE. 

1. To have the care and custody and provide for the safe keeping of school- 
houses, out-houses, books, furniture and appendages, and the district libraries in 
said city ; 

2. To contract with, license and employ aU teachers of the several public 
schools therein ; 

3. To contract for and superintend the building, enlarging, improving, furnish- 
ing and repairing of all school-houses ordered by the common council, and all 
the repairs and improvements around the same. The same to be done under the 
direction of the common council ; 

4. To audit accounts and order the payment of the same, if contracted by 
them for either of the purposes stated in the third section of this title ; 

5. To make all selections of books for the district libraries or for school pur- 
poses in said city ; . 

6. In cases where no other provision is made by this act, to supply the places 
and perform the several duties of superintendents of common schools in towns; 
and, in respect to the several school districts in said city, to supply the place and 
perform the several duties required to be performed by trustees of the several 
school districts in this state by the general statutes relating to common schools. 

§ 6. All resolutions for the payment of money, adopted by the board of educa- 
tion, shall immediately after the adoption of the same be certified by its clerk 
and the president of the board to the comptroller of the city, with a brief state- 
ment of the purpose for which the payment is made, and the fund out of which it 
is made; on receiving such certificate, the comptroller shall draw his warrant for 
the amount or amounts so certified on the treasurer of said city ; such warrant 
shall specify for what purpose the sum therein named is paid, and that the same 
is to be paid out of the school fund of said city. 

§ 7 . Between the first day of July and the first day of August, in each year, said 
board shall make and transmit to the county clerk a report, in writing, bearing 
date the first day of July, in the year of its transmission, and containing an 
account and description of all the common schools kept in said city during the 
preceding year, and the time they have severally been kept; the number of 
children taught in said schools respectively ; the number of children over the age 
of four and under the age of twenty-one years residing in said city on the first 
day of January of that year ; the whole amount of school moneys received 
by the treasurer of said city during the year preceding, distinguishing the amount 
received from the county treasurer, from the city collectors, and from any other 
source ; the manner in which said moneys have been expended, and whether any 
and what part remains unexpended, and for what cause ; the amount of money 
received for tuition fees from foreign pupils during the year, and the amount paid 
for teachers' wages in addition to the public moneys, with such other information 
as relates to the common schools of said city, or such as the common council may 
desire. The common council of said city shall have the power, and it shall be 
their duty, to raise from time to time by tax, upon the real and personal estate 
of said city which shall be liable to taxation for ordinary city taxes or for county 
or city charges, in addition to the amount of school moneys now or hereafter 
appropriated, as provided by law for common schools in said city, such sums as 
may be determined by the common council to be necessary or proper for any or 
all of the following purposes : 

1. To purchase, lease or improve sites of or for school-houses ; 

2. To build, purchase, lease, enlarge, alter, improve or repair school-houses, 
and their out-houses and appurtenances ; 

3. To purchase, exchange, improve and repair school apparatus, books, furni- 
ture and appendages ; but the power herein granted shall not be deemed to 
authorize the furnishing of class or text books for any scholar whose parents or 
guardians shall be able to furnish the same ; 

4. To procure fuel and defray the expenses of the common schools and the 
expenses of the school libraries of said city ; 

6. To pay the wages of teachers, due after the application of the public moneys 
which may, by law, be appropriated and provided for that purpose ; provided, 



TROY. 459 

nevertheless, that such tax shall not be laid oftener than once in each year. Nor 
shall the amount to be raised in any one year, for buying sites and erecting and 
repairing school-houses and appurtenances, exceed five thousand dollars. 

§ 8. The common coiincil shall cause the amount of the tax, at any time ordered 
to be raised in pursuance of this act, to be added to the amount which is other- 
wise authorized by law to be raised by tax in said city; and the common council 
shall cause the same, with the collectors' fees thereon, to be assessed, levied and 
collected at the same time, and by the same warrant and in the same manner, 
with the taxes raised for city expenses under and by virtue of the act of incorpo- 
ration of said city. 

§ 9. All moneys required to be raised by virtue of this act, which the board of 
education is authorized to expend, on being raised as herein provided, with all 
other moneys received from any source for school purposes, shall be deposited, 
for the safe keeping thereof, with the treasurer of said city to the credit of the 
school fund, and shall be drawn out, in pursuance of a resolution or resolutions 
of said board, by warrants drawn by the. comptroller, payable to the order of the 
person or persons entitled to receive such moneys, in the manner prescribed by 
the sixth section of this title ; and said treasurer shall keep the school funds, 
authorized by this act to be received by him, separate and distinct from any other 
fund which he is or may by law be authorized to receive. Nor shall any of the 
moneys belonging to said school fund be paid out by the treasurer, except upon 
the warrant of the comptroller, drawn on said fund as aforesaid. Nor shall the 
comptroller draw any warrant or order, payable out of said school fund, except 
upon the resolutions of the board of education, and as specified in this and the 
sixth section of this title. Nor shall any part of said school fund be borrowed 
from such fund, directly or indirectly, by the city, or in any manner transferred 
to any city fund, but the same shall remain in the treasury, sacredly set apart and 
dedicated to school purposes, and to be drawn therefrom only for such purposes, 
and in the manner herein provided. 

§ 10. The city of Syracuse shall be taken and deemed a town, for all purposes, 
in respect to making returns in respect to common schools, and for receiving 
money from the state, or other sources, for school or library purposes. 

§ 11. No school commissioner shall be interested in any work done or supplies 
furnished in pursuance of any action of the board of education ; nor shall any 
alderman or comptroller be interested in any work done or supplies furnished in 
pursuance of any action of the common council. If any such person shall violate 
any of the provisions of this section, he shall forfeit and pay the sum of one 
hundred dollars, to be sued for and recovered by and in the name of any citizen 
of said city. 



TROY. 

[Laws of 1849, chap. 198, as amended hy chap. 47 of 1851, chap, 366 of 1861, 
and chap. 81 of 1854.] 

Section 1. Each public school at present existing, or which may hereafter be 
maintained in the city of Troy, shall constitute a school district, under the super- 
vision and direction of the board of education of said city, and the schools therein 
shall be free to all children between the ages of four and twenty-one years residing 
in such wards. 

§ 2. There shall be erectedin each of the said wards, as hereinafter provided, 
one or more school-houses of size and form sufficient to accommodate all the 
children between the aforesaid ages residing in such wards. The purchase of 
sites for school-houses shall be agreed upon in joint committee of three from each 
board hereinafter mentioned ; and in case of disagrement, the decision shall rest 
with the common council. 



460 TROY. 

§ 3. The title of the school-houses, sites, lots, furniture, books, apparatus and 
appurtenances, and all other school property in this act mentioned, shall be vested 
in the city of Troy, and the same, while used or appropriated for school purposes, 
shall not be levied upon or sold by virtue of any warrant of execution, nor be 
subject to taxation for any purpose whatever ; and the said city in its corporate 
capacity shall be able to take, hold and dispose of any real or personal estate, 
transferred to it by gift, grant, bequest or devise, for the use of the common 
schools of the said city, whether the same shall be transferred in term to said 
city by its proper style or by any other designation, or to any person or persons 
or body for the use of said schools. 

§ 4. The common council of said city may, upon the recommendation of the 
board of education hereinafter mentioned, sell any of the school-houses, lots or 
sites, or any other school property now or here.after belonging to said city, upon 
such terms as the said common council may deem reasonable. The proceeds of 
all such sales shall be paid to the chamberlain of the city, and shall be by the 
said board of education again expended in the construction, repairs or improve- 
ments of other school-houses, lots, sites or school furniture, apparatus or appur- 
tenances. 

§ 5. [Kelates to the number and election of commissioners. As amended by 
chap. 186 of 1851, it provides for the election of two commissioners from each 
ward, except the 5th, 6th and 9th, which have but one each.] 

§ 6. Within ten days after their election, as in the last section mentioned, said 
commissioners, so elected from those wards in which more than one commissioner 
is elected, shall meet at the office of the clerk of said city, and shall determine 
by lot which of the two persons so elected for each ward shall serve for the term 
ending on the second Tuesday of March, 1851, and which for the term ending on 
the second Tuesday of March, 1852. 

g 7. In each year thereafer there shall be elected in said city, at the annual 
charter election, in the same manner and under the same regulations as other 
ward officers are elected, one commissioner of common schools for each ward, to 
supply the places of those whose terms are about to expire. The term of office 
of all commissioners elected pursuant to this act shall commence on the Tuesday 
next after their election, and shall continue two years. The number of commis- 
sioners of common schools in the city of Troy shall ahvays be the same as the 
number of aldermen in said city. 

§ 8. The common council of said city, upon the nomination of the board of 
education, may make appointment of commissioners of common schools to fill 
vacancies which may occur from any cause other than the expiration of the term 
of office of those elected; and the removal from the ward for which he was 
appointed or elected ; and neglect to attending three meetings of the board, unless 
under circumstances which shall be sustained by the board, shall be deemed a 
resignation of his office by any commissioner. The commissioners so appointed 
shall serve out the unexpired term of the commissioners whose places they were 
appointed to fill. 

§ 9. Any commissioner of common schools in said city may be removed from 
office for official misconduct by the common council of said city, by a vote of 
two-thirds of the members thereof; but a written copy of the charges, against 
said commissioner shall he served upon him, and he shall be allowed an opportu- 
nity to refute any such charge of misconduct before removal. 

§ 10. The commissioners of common schools in said city shall constitute a board 
to be styled the "Board of Education of the city of Troy," which shall be a 
corporate body in relation to all the powers and duties conferred upon them by 
virtue of this act. A majority of the board shall form a quorum. The first 
meeting of the board shall be on the second AVednesday next after their election, 
and the annual meeting of the board thereafter shall be on the second Wednesday 
next after their election. At the first meeting of the board, and annually there- 
after, at the annual meeting, they shall elect one of their number president of the 



TROY. 461 

board ; and wlienever he shall be absent a president pro tempore may be appoint- 
ed. The said commissioners shall receive no compensation for their services. 

§ 11. The said commissioners shall appoint a clerk, who may be one of their 
number, who shall devote his whole time to the interests of the schools, and hold 
his office during the pleasure of the board. His compensation shall be fixed by 
them. The said clerk shall keep a record of the proceedings of the board, and 
perform such other duties as the board may prescribe ; the said record, or tran- 
script thereof certified by the president and clerk, shall be received in all courts 
as prima facie evidence of facts therein set forth ; and such records, and all the 
books, accounts, vouchers and papers of said board, shall at all times be subject 
to the inspection of the common council and of any committee thereof. 

§ 12. The common council of said city shall have the power, and it shall be 
their duty, to raise from time to time by tax, to be levied equally upon all the 
real and personal estate in said city which shall be liable to taxation for the ordi- 
nary city taxes or for city or county charges, such sum or sums of money, as 
may be necessary or proper for any or all the following purposes : 

1. To purchase school-houses, and also to purchase, lease or improve sites 
therefor : 

2. To enable the board of education to build, lease, enlarge, alter, improve and 
repair school-houses, and their out-houses and appurtenances ; 

3. To purchase, exchange, improve and repair school apparatus, books, furni- 
ture and appendages ; but the power herein granted shall not be deemed to 
authorize the furnishing with class or text books any scholar whose parents or 
guardian shall be able to furnish the same ; 

4. To procure fuel and defray the contingent expenses of the common schools, 
and the expenses of the school libraries of said city; 

5. To pay the wages of teachers due after the application of the public moneys 
which may by law be appropriated and provided for that purpose ; provided, 
nevertheless, that the tax to be levied as aforesaid, and collected by virtue of 
this act, shall be collected at the same time and in the same manner as other city 
taxes ; 

6. And the amount to be raised for teachers' wages and contingent expenses in 
any one year shall not be less than twice nor more than four times the amount 
apportioned to said city from the common school fund of the state during the 
previous year ; nor shall the amount to be raised in one year, after the first Tuesday 
in March, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, for purchasing sites and 
erecting and repairing school-houses, exceed five thousand dollars, unless, in the 
opinion of the common council, a larger sum should be required to meet 
unforeseen contingencies. And the common council of said city are authorized 
and directed, when necessary, to raise by loan, in anticipation of the taxes, the 
moneys so to be raised, collected and levied as aforesaid. 

§ 13. All moneys to be raised pursuant to the provisions of this act, and all 
school moneys by law appropriated to or provided for said city, shall be paid to 
the chamberlain thereof, who, together with the sureties upon his official bond, 
shall be accorftitable therefor, in the same manner as for other moneys of said 
city ; and the said chamberlain shall be liable to the same penalties for any offi- 
cial misconduct in relation to the said moneys, as for any similar misconduct in 
relation to other moneys of said city. 

§ 14. The said board shall have power, and it shall be their duty : 

1. To establish and organize, in the several wards of said city, such and so 
many schools ( including the common schools now existing therein ) as they shall 
deem requisite and expedient, and to alter and discontinue the same ; 

2. To build, lease or contract for the occupation and use of school-houses and 
rooms, and to improve the same as they may deem proper ; 

3. To alter, improve and repair school-houses and appurtenances, as they may 
deem advisable ; 

4. To purchase, exchange, improve and repair school apparatus, books for indi- 
gent pupils, furniture and appendages, and to defray their contingent expenses, 
and the expense of the school libraries ; 



462 TROY. 

5. To have the custody and safe keeping of the school-houses, out-houses, 
books, furniture and appendages, and to see that the ordinances of the common 
council in relation thereto be observed ; 

6. To contract with, license and employ all teachers in said schools, and at 
their pleasure to remove them ; 

7. To pay the wages of such teachers out of the moneys appropriated and pro- 
vided by law for the support of schools in said city, so far as the same shall be 
sufficient, and the residue thereof, from the money authorized to be raised for that 
purpose by section twelve of this act, by tax upon said city. 

8. To defray the necessary contingent expenses of the board, including an 
annual salary to the clerk, provided the account of such expenses shall first be 
audited and allowed by the common council ; 

9. To have in all respects the superintendence, supervision and management 
of the common schools in said city, and from time to time to adopt, alter, modify 
and repeal, as they may deem expedient, rules and regulations for their organi- 
zation, government and instruction, for the reception of pupils and their transfer 
from one school to another, and generally for the promotion of their good order, 
prosperity and public utility ; 

10. Whenever in the opinion of the board it may be advisable to sell any of the 
school-houses, lots or sites, or any of the school property now or hereafter be- 
longing to the city, to report the same to the common council ; 

11. To prepare and report to the common council such ordinances and regu- 
lations as may be necessary or proper for the protection, safe keeping, care and 
preservation of school-houses, lots and sites and apppurteuances, and all the 
property belonging to the city connected with or appertaining to the schools, 
and to suggest proper penalties for the violation of such ordinances and regula- 
tions ; and aunnually, on or before the first day of February in each year, to 
deteimine and certify to said common council the sam in their opinion necessary 
or proper to be raised under the twelfth section of this act, for the year, com- 
mencing on the first of March thereafter, specifying the sums required for each 
of the purposes therein mentioned, and the reasons therefor ; 

12. Between the first day of July and the first day of August, in each j'ear, 
to make and transmit to the county clerk, or such other officer as may be 
designated by law, a report in writing, bearing date the first day of July, in the 
year of its transmission, and stating : 

I. The number of school-houses in said city, and an account and description 
of all the common schools kept in said city during the preceding year, and the 
time they have severally been taught ; 

II. The number of children taught in said schools respectively, and the number 
of children over the age of four years and under the age of twenty-one years 
residing in said city on the first day of January of that year ; 

III. The whole amount of school moneys received by the chamberlain of said 
city during the year preceding, distinguishing the amount received from the 
county treasurer, from the city tax, and from any other source '; 

IV. The manner in which such moneys have been expended, 9nd whether any 
and what part remains unexpended, and for what cause; 

V. The amount of money received for tuition fees from foreign pupils during 
the year, and the amount paid for teachers' wages in addition to the public 
moneys, with sucli other information relating to the common schools of said 
city as may from time to time be required by the State Superintendent of Com- 
mon Schools. 

§ 15. It shall be the duty of each commissioner to visit the schools in his ward 
twice in each year ; and the board of education shall provide that each of the 
schools in the city shall be visited by a committee of three or more of their num- 
ber, or by their clerk, at least once in each term. 

§ 16. The said board of education shall have power to allow the children of 
persons not resident within the city to attend any of the schools of said city under 
the care and control of said board, upon such terms as said board shall by reso- 
lation prescribe, fixing the tuition which shall be paid therefor. 



TROY. 463 

§ 17. It shall be the duty of said board, in all their expenditures and contracts, 
to have reference to the amount of moneys which shall be subject to their order 
during the current year, and not to exceed that amount. 

§ 18. The said board of commissioners shall be trustees of the school library 
or libraries in said city, and all the provisions of law which now are or hereafter 
may be passed relative to district school libraries shall apply to the said com- 
missioners ; they shall also be vested with the same discretion, as to the disposi- 
tion of the moneys appropriated by any law of this state for the purchase of 
libraries, which is therein conferred upon the inhabitants of school districts. It 
shall be their duty to provide a library room or rooms, in the several school- 
houses in said city, and the necessary furniture therefor. The clerk of said board 
shall be the general librarian. The board shall also appoint a librarian for each 
school, to have the care of the books and to superintend the letting out and 
return thereof. The several school librarians shall from time to time inform the 
general librarian of the state and condition of the libraries, and the said board, 
or the general librarian under the direction and by resolution of the said board, 
may make all purchases of books for the libraries and provide for their equitable 
distribution among the schools, and exchange or cause to be repaii'cd the dam- 
aged books belonging thereto, and also sell any books which may be deemed 
useless or of improper character, and apply the proceeds to the purchase of other 
books for said libraries. 

§ 19. It shall be the duty of said board, at least fifteen days before the annual 
election for commissioners in each year, to prepare and report to the common 
council true and correct statements of the receipts and disbursements of moneys, 
under and in pursuance of the provisions of this act, during the preceding year ; 
in which account shall be stated, under appropriate heads : 

1. The moneys raised by the common council under the twelfth section of 
this act ; 

2. The school moneys received by the chamberlain of the city from the county 
treasurer, distinguishing between the sum received from the state and the sum 
raised \ipon tlie city by the board of supervisors ; 

3. The moneys received by the common council under the third section of 
this act ; 

4. All moneys received by the chamberlain subject to the order of the board, 
specifying the sources ; 

5. The manner in which such sums of money shall have been expended, speci- 
fying the amount paid under each liead of expenditure ; 

And the common council shall, ten days before such election, cause the same 
to be published in at least two of the newspapers published in said city. 

§ 20. The common council of said city shall have the power to pass such 
ordinances and regulations as the said board of education may report as necessary 
and proper for the protection, safe keeping, care and preservation of the school- 
houses, lots, sites, appurtenances and appendages, libraries, and all necessary 
property belonging to or connected with the schools in said city, and to impose 
proper penalties for the violation thereof, subject to the restrictions and limitations 
contained in the act to incorporate the said city ; and all such penalties shall be 
collected in the same manner that the penalties for the violation of the city ordi- 
nances are by law collected, and when collected shall be paid to the chamlDerlain 
of the city, and be subject to the order of the board of education, in the same 
manner as other moneys raised pursuant to the provisions of this act. 

§ 21. It shall be the duty of the common council, within fifteen days after 
receiring the certificate of the commissioners, required by the fourteenth section 
of this act, of the sums necessary or proper to be raised under the twelfth section 
of this act, to determine and certify to said board of education the amount that 
will be raised by them for the year commencing on the first of March thereafter, 
for the purpose mentioned in said twelfth section, distinguishing between the 
amount to be raised for teachers' wages and contingent expenses, and the amount 
to be raised for the repairs of school-houses, which amounts shall be subject to 
the disposal of the board of education. 



464 TROY, 

§ 22. All the moneys required to be raised by virtue of i his act, or received by 
the said city for or on account of the common schools, except such sums as are 
raised for the purchase of sites for school-houses, shall be deposited, for the safe 
keeping thereof, with the chamberlain of said city, to the credit of said board of 
education, and shall be drawn out in pursuance of a resolution or resolutions of 
said board, by drafts drawn by the president and countersigned by the clerk of 
said board, payable to the order of the person or persons entitled to receive such 
moneys ; and said chamberlain shall keep the funds, authorized by this act to be 
received by him, separate and distinct from any other fund which he is or may 
by law be authorized to receive. 

§ 23. It shall be the duty of the clerk of said city, immediately after the elec- 
tion of any person as a commissioner of common schools, personally or in 
writing to notify him of his election, and if any such person shall not, within ten 
after receiving such notice of his election, take and subscribe the constitutional 
oath, and file the same witli the clerk of the said city, the common council may 
consider it a refusal to serve, and proceed to supply the vacancy occasioned by 
such refusal ; and the person so refusing shall forfeit and pay to the city cham- 
berlain, for the benefit of the tuition fund, a penalty of ten dollars. 

[ Chap. 353, Laws of 1850, as amended by chap. 366, Laws of 1851. ] 

Section 1. It shall be lawful for the board of education of the city of Troy, 
and the said board is hereby authorized, to discharge all the duties and exercise 
all the powers belonging to the office of town superintendent of common schools 
by law, in relation to the formation of joint school districts out of parts of said 
city and parts of the adjoining towns, and also in the erection of separate school 
districts, as hereinafter provided, in either the fifth, sixth and seventh wards 
of said city. 

§ 2. Whenever it may become necessarj'' or convenient to form a joint district 
out of parts of said city and of any adjoining town, the board of education may 
depute any member of said board, or the clerk thereof, to meet with the superin- 
tendent of such adjoining town, and the proceedings of such member of said 
board, or the clerk thereof, and such town superintendent, in conformity with the 
statute, duly certified under their hands, in forming, regulating and altering any 
such districts, shall be valid and conclusive, when approved by said board at any 
meeting regularly convened. 

§ 3. The said board of education may, in its discretion, upon the written appli- 
cation of at least two-thirds of the inhabitants, entitled by law to vote in school 
district meetings, residing within, the territory to be included therein, erect sepa- 
rate school districts, and from time to time regulate and alter the same, in either 
the fifth, sixth and seventh wards of said city. Such separate school districts, 
when so erected, and the joint districts provided for in the second section of this 
act, when so formed, shall severally enjoy all the rights and privileges and be 
subject to all the duties and liabilities of school districts legally formed in the 
several towns of this state, and shall be no longer under the care and government 
of said board of education. 

§ 4. It shall be the duty of the trustees of all such joint and separate districts 
as shall be formed and erected, in pursuance of this act, to make to the boai'd of 
education of said city all the reports and returns which are or may be by law 
required in the several towns of this state to be made to the town superintendents 
thereof. It shall be the duty of the said board of education to apportion to each 
of the parts of such joint districts lying within said city, and to each of such 
separate districts, from all the public school moneys that shall thereafter be 
apportioned and paid to the city, whether the same shall be received from the 
state school moneys or from the taxes directed by law to be levied and collected 
for that purpose, the just proportion of such moneys, according to the number 
of children residing within such parts of said joint districts as shall lie within 
said city and within said separate districts between the ages of five and sixteen 



UTICA. 465 

years, inclusive, making the whole number of such children residing within the 
city the basis for such apportionment, as the same shall appear from the last 
reports thereof. 

§ 5. It shall be the duty of the board of supervisors of the county of Rensse- 
laer, from and after the passage of this act, to direct that all the moneys levied 
and collected on the inhabitants of the city of Troy for common school purposes, 
whether the same shall be levied and collected as county taxes or otherwise, shall 
be paid over by the receiver of taxes for said city to the chamberlain thereof, for 
the sole use and benefit of the free public schools within said city, and it shall be 
the duty of the board of education to apply all such moneys to the support of 
the free schools of said city, in conformitj' to law. 



UTICA. 

[Laws of 1842, cJiap. 137, as amended hy chap. 131 of 1844, chap. 184, title 10 of 
1848, chap. 66 of 1850, and chap. 848 of 1854.] 

Section 1. At the next annual election for city officers to be held in the city 
of Utica there shall be elected six commissioners of common schools for the said' 
city who shall be elected in the same manner as justices of the peace, super- 
visors and constables are elected in said city pursuant to the act incorporating 
said city. 

§ 2. Whithin t«n days after their election, the p«rsons so elected shall take and 
subscribe the oath of office prescribed by the constitution, and file the same with 
the clerk of said city ; and they or a majority of them shall thereupon meet and 
cause the whole number of commissioners so chosen to be divided into three 
classes, to be severally numbered first, second and third. The term of office of 
the first class shall expire at the end of one year, of the second class at the end 
of two years, and of the third class at the end of three years ; but each class 
shall continue in office until their successors are elected and have taken the oath 
of office. 

§ 3. At every annual election for city officers in said city after the next, there 
shall in like manner be elected two commissioners of common schools, to supply 
the places of those whose terra of office is about to expire ; they shall hold their 
office for three years, and until their successors are elected and have taken the 
oath of office. The term of office of all commissioners elected pursuant to the 
provisions of this act shall commence on the first Monday after the first Monday 
in March next succeeding their election. 

§ 4. The common council of said city may make appointments of commig-' 
sioners of common schools, to fill vacancies which may occur from any cause' 
other than the expiration of the term of office of the person elected. The com- 
missioners so appointed shall hold their office for the unexpired term of those to 
supply whose places they are appointed. 

^ 5. Any commissioner of common schools in said city may be removed from 
office for official misconduct by the common council thereof, by a vote of two- 
thirds of the members thereof. 

§ 6. The commissioners of common schools in said city shall constitute a 
board to be styled the " Commissioners of Common Schools iu the city of Utica,'* 
which shall be a corporate body in relation to all the powers and duties conferred 
upon them by virtue of this act ; a majority of the board shall form a quorum. 
At their first meeting after each annual city election they shall elect one of their 
number chairman, and whenever the chairman shall be absent from a meeting 
of the board they may appoint a chairman pro tempore ; they shall also elect a 
clerk, who shall hold his office during the pleasure of the board ; the said com- 
missioners shall receive no compensation for their services. 

g 7. The clerk of said board shall keep a record of the proceedings thereof, 
which record, or a transcript therefrom certified by the chairman and clerk, shall 

[Code.] 59 



466 UTICA. 

be received in all courts as prima facie evidence of the facts therein set forth ; 
and such records, and all books, papers and accounts of the said board, shall at 
all times be subject to the inspection of the common council and of any com- 
mittee thereof 

§ 8. The common council of the said city shall have the power, and it shall be 
their duty, to raise from time to time, by tax upon the real and personal estates 
in said city which shall be liable to taxation for the ordinary city taxes or for 
town or county charges, such sums as may be determined and certified by the 
said board of commissioners to be necessary or proper for any or all of the follow- 
ing purposes : 

1. To purchase, lease or improve sites for school-houses; 

2. To build, purchase, lease, enlarge, alter, improve and repair school-houses 
and their out-houses and appurtenances ; 

3. To purchase, exchange, improve and repair school apparatus, books, furni- 
ture and appendages ; 

4. To procure fuel and defray the contingent expenses of the common schools, 
and the expenses of the district library of said city, and the contingent expenses 
of said board of commissioners, including the salary of the clerk of said board, 
and to meet any deficiency which shall occur in the payment of the wages of 
teachers of the said schools, after applying to the payment thereof the school 
moneys appropriated and provided in said city and the tuition fees which shall be 
collected as hereinafter provided, which shall be in addition to the amount of 
school moneys now or hereafter appropriated or provided by law for common 
schools in said city; provided, nevertheless, that such tax shall not be laid 
oftener than once in each year, and that the whole amount to be raised shall not 
in any one year exceed the sum of five thousand dollars. 

§ 9. The common council shall cause the amount of the tax, at any time ordered 
to be raised in pursuance of the last section, to be added to the amount which 
they are otherwise authorized by law to raise by tax in said city, and they shall 
cause the same, with the collectors' fees thereon, to be assessed, levied and col- 
lected at the same time, by the same warrant and in the same manner with the 
taxes raised for city expenses under and by virtue of the forty-fourth section of 
the act to incorporate said city. 

§ 10. All moneys to be raised pursuant to the provisions of this act, and all 
school moneys by law appropriated to or provided for said city, shall be paid to 
the treasurer of the said city, who, together with the sureties upon his official 
bond, shall be accountable therefor in the same manner as for other moneys of 
the said city ; the said treasuer shall also be liable to the same penalties for any 
official misconduct in relation to the said moneys as for any similar misconduct 
in relation to the other moneys of the city. 

§ 11. After the passage of this act the treasurer of the said city shall not pay 
out any moneys in his hands, received by the said city either as school moneys 
or collected or received by virtue of any of the provisions of this act, excepting 
upon an order drawn upon him and signed by the chairman and clerk of the said 
board of commissioners ; and no such order shall be drawn except by virtue of a 
resolution of the board. 

§ 12. The said board may cause a suit or suits to be prosecuted in the name 
of the city of Utica upon the official bond of the treasurer, or of any collector of 
the said city, for any default, delinquency or official misconduct in relation to the 
collection, safe keeping or payment of any moneys in this act mentioned. 

§ 13. The said board shall have power, and it shall be their duty : 

1. To establish and organize such and so many common schools in said city 
(including the common and free schools now existing therein) as they shall deem 
requisite and expedient, and to alter and discontinue the same ; 

2. To purchase or hire school-houses and rooms and lots or sites for school- 
houses, and to fence and improve them as they deem proper; 

3. Upon such lots or sites, and upon any sites now owned by said city, to build, 
enlarge, alter, improve and repair school-houses, out-houses and appurtenances, 
as they may deem advisable ; 



UTICA. 467 

4. To purchase, exchange, improve and repair school apparatus, books, furni- 
ture and appendages, and to provide fuel for the schools, and defray their con- 
tingent expenses and the expenses of the district library ; 

5. To have the custody and safe keeping of the school-houses, out-houses, 
apparatus, books, furniture and appendages, and to see that the ordinances of the 
common council in relation thereto be observed ; 

6. To contract with and employ all teachers in the common schools and at their 
pleasure to remove them ; 

7. To pay the wages of such teachers out of the school moneys which shall be 
appropriated and provided in the said cty, so far as the same shall be sufficient, 
and the residue thereof from the tuition fees they shall be authorized to collect 
or receive, as herein provided; and incase the said school moneys and tuition 
fees shall be insufficient to pay such wages, then to pay the deficiency out of the 
moneys to be raised by the common council of said city, in pursuance of the 
eighth section of this act ; 

8. To fix the rate of tuition fees in said schools at a sum not exceeding two 
dollars per term, which shall be a period of not less than eleven weeks, and to 
designate a person or persons to whom the same may be paid previous to issuing 
a warrant for the collection thereof ; and to exempt from the payment of the whole 
or any part of the tuition fees such person as they may deem entitled to such 
exemption, for indigence or any other sufficient cause, and cause a list of the 
persons so exempted, with the extent of their exemption, to be kept by the clerk 
of the board ; 

9. To defray the necessary contingent expenses of the board, including an 
annual salary to the clerk, which shall not exceed one hundred dollars, provided 
that the account of such expenses shall first be audited and allowed by the com- 
mon council ; 

10. After the end of each school term to make out a rate bill containing the 
name of each person liable to pay tuition fees, who shall not have paid them 
(prior to the making out of such rate bill) to the person or persons designated 
by the board for that purpose, and the amount for which such person is liable, 
adding thereto a sum not exceeding five cents on each dollar of the sum due, 
for collector's fees, and to annex to such rate bill a warrant for the collection 
thereof ; 

11. To deliver such rate bill, with the warrant annexed, to one of the collectors 
of taxes of said city, who shall execute the same in like manner and with like 
effect with the other warrants for the collection of taxes placed in his hands ; or, 
in their discretion, to deliver the same to a collector to be appointed by said board 
of commissioners, who shall, if required by said board, execute to said commis- 
sioners in their corporate capacity a bond, with one or more surities, to be 
approved by said commissioners or a majorty of them, which bond, as to its penalty 
and conditions, shall be the same as is by law required to be executed by the 
collectors of school districts; and the said board of commissioners shall have 
the same power and authority, in regard to said bond and the collection thereof, 
as the trustees of school districts have by law in regard to the bonds given by 
collectors of school districts ; and the said collector shall have the same power 
in the execution of said warrants, that the collectors of taxes of said city have 
by virtue of this act ; 

12. To have in all respects the superintendence, supervision and management 
of the common schools in said city, and from time to time to adopt, alter, modify 
and repeal, as they may deem expedient, rules and regulations for their organiza- 
tion, government and instruction, for the reception of pupils and their transfer 
from one school to another, and generally for the promotion of good order, pros- 
par' - t y and public utility ; 

13. Whenever in the opinion of the board it may be advisable to sell any of 
the school-houses, lots or sites, or any of the school property now or hereafter 
belonging to the city, to report the same to the common council ; 

14. To prepare and report to the common council such ordinances and regula- 
tions as may be necessary or proper for the protection, safe keeping, care and 



468 , UTICA. 

preservation of school-louses, lots, sites and appurtenances, and all the properly 
belonging to the city connected with or appertaining to the schools, and to sug- 
gest proper penalties for the violation of such ordinances and regulations ; and 
annually to determine and certify to the said common council the sums in their 
opinion necessary or proper to be raised under the eighth section of this act, 
specifying the sums required for each of the serveral purposes therein mentioned ; 

15. To unite with the commissioners of schools of any adjoining tOAvn, and 
form, regulate and alter any district out of any portion of the said city and such 
town, whenever they shall deem it necessary and proper to do so ; in which case, 
so far as such district or districts are concerned, and said board shall, during the 
existence of such districts, have the same powers and duties Avhich the commis- 
sioners of schools in towns have ; 

16. Between the first day of July and the first day of August, in each year, to 
make and transmit to the county clerk a report in writing, bearing date the first 
day of July in the year of its transmission, and stating: 

I. The whole number of districts separately set off within the said city, in pur- 
suance of subdivision fifteen of this section ; 

II. An account and description of all the common schools kept in said city 
during the preceding year, and the time they have severally been taught ; 

III. The number of children taught in the said schools respectively, and the 
number of children over the age of five and under sixteen [21] years residing in 
the city on itbe iirst .day of January of that year ; 

IV. The whole amount of school moneys received bj" the treasurer of the said 
citj' during the preceding year, distinguishing the amount received from the 
county treasurer, from the town collector, and from any other and what source ; 

V. The manner m which such moneys have been expended, and whether any 
and what part remains unexpended, and for what cause ; 

VI. The amount of money reeeiv-ed for tuition fees during the year, and the 
amount paid for teachers' wages, in addition to the public moneys, with such other 
information as the Superintendent of Common Schools may from time to time 
require. 

§ 14. All persons collecting or receiving tuition fees, pursuant to the designation 
or the warrant of the said board, shall be liable for all moneys thus collected or 
received by them, in the same manner as collectors are for moneys received by 
them for taxes, and any collector of the said citj'^ and his sureties shall be liable 
upon his oflScial bond for any default, delinquency, negtect or misconduct, in the 
duties with which he may bo charged under or by virtue of this act, in the same 
manner and with the like effect as for any other official default, delinquency, neg- 
lect or misconduct ; and such collector shall also be liable to the same penalties 
for any such official misconduct as for any similar misconduct in relation to any 
other duties of his office. 

§ 15. The warrant annexed to any rate bill, pursuant to the provisions of this 
act, shall be under the hands of the commissioners, or a majority of them, and 
shall command the collector to collect from every person in such rate bill named 
the sum therein set opposite his name ; and in case any person so named shall not 
pay such sum on demand, to levy the same, together with the fees of said collector, 
by distress and sale of goods and chattels of the person who ought to pay the 
same, or of any goods and chattels in his possession, wheresoever the same may 
be found in the city of Utica, and to make return of such warrant to the treasurer 
of said city within thirty days after the delivery thereof. 

§ 16. Such warrants shall have the like force and effect as warrants Issued by 
the boards of supervisors to the collectors of towns ; and the collectors of the said 
city are authorized to collect the amount due from any person or persons in the 
said city in the same manner and with the same power that collectors of a school- 
district have for the collection of tax or rate bills issued by the trustees of 
school districts. 

§ 17. The board of commissioners shall possess the same powers which the 
trustees of school districts have for the collection of tuition fees which shall not 
be collected by the warrant issued by them with rate bills, and subject to the 



UTICA. 469 

same regulations ; and they may, in like manner as the trustees of school districts, 
correct and amend errors in making out any rate bill, and refund to any person 
any sum improperly collected in consequence of such error. 

§ 18. It shall be the duty of the said board, in all their expenditures and con- 
tracts, to have reference to the amount of moneys which will be subject to their 
order during the then current year for tlie particular expenditures in question. 

§ 19. The said board of commissioners shall be the trustees of the district 
librarj' in said city, and all the provisions of the act entitled " An act lespecting 
the school district libraries," passed April 15, 1839, and all other laws which now 
are or may hereafter be passed relating to district school libraries, shall apply to 
the said commissioners in the same manner as if they were trustees of a school 
district comprehending the said city ; they shall also be vested with the discretion 
as to the disposition of the moneys appropriated by the fourth section of chapter 
two hundred and thirty-seven of the statute of eighteen hundred and thirty- 
eight, which is therein conferred upon the inhabitants of school districts. It 
shall be their duty to provide a library room and the necessary library furniture, 
and appoint a librarian to make all purchases of books for the said library, and 
from time to time to exchange or cause to be repaired damaged books belonging 
thereto; they may also sell any books which they deem useless, or of improper 
character, and apply the proceeds to the purchase of other books for the said 
library. 

§ 106. [Title 10, chap. 184, Laws of 1849.] The board of commissioners of 
common schools may, from the moneys received by them for the school district 
library, defray the contingent expenses of the library and the salary of the libra- 
rian, and apply such portion of it as they may deem proper to the payment of 
teachers' salaries. 

§ 20. It shall be the duty of said board, at least fifteen days before the annual 
election for city officers in each year, to prepare and report to the common coun- 
cil true and correct statements of the receipts and disbursements of moneys under 
and in pursuance of the provisions of this act during the preceding lyear, in 
which account shall be stated, under appropriate heads : 

1. The moneys raised bj' the common council under the eighth section of this 
act; 

2. The school moneys received by the treasurer of the city from the county 
treasurer and the collector of taxes for town and county charges in said city ; 

3. The moneys receired for tuition fees ; 

4. All other moneys received by the treasurer, subject to the order of the board, 
specifying the sources ; ■ 

5. The manner in which such moneys shall have been expended, specifying the 
amount paid under each head of expenditure ; 

And the common council shall, ten days before the said election, cause the 
same to be published, with the staten)ent required to be published by the thirty- 
third section of the act to incorporate the said city. 

§ 21. The said board shall be subject to the rules and regulations from time to 
time made by the superintendent of common schools, so far as the same maj^ be 
applicable to them, and not inconsistent with the provisions of this act. 

§ 22. The common council of said city shall have the power, and it shall be 
their duty, to pass such ordinances and regulations as the said board of commis- 
sioners may report as necessary and proper for the protection, safe keeping, care 
and preservation of the school-houses, lots, sites and appurtenances, and all the 
necessary property belonging to or connected Avith the schools in said city, and 
to impose proper penalties for the violation thereof, subject to the restrictions and 
limitations contained in the act to incorporate the said city ; and all such penal- 
ties shall be collected in the same manner that the penalties for violation of the 
city ordinances are by law collected, and when collected shall be paid to the 
treasurer of the city, and be subject to the order of the board of commissioners, 
in the same manner as other moneys raised pursuant to the provisions of this act. 

§23. Whenever the said board shall report to the common council that it is 
advisable to sell any of the school-houses, lots or sites, or any of the school pro- 



470 UTICA. 

perty now or hereafter belonging to the city, it shall be the duty of the common 
council to sell the same without unreasonable delay, and upon such terms as the 
said council may deem advisable. The proceeds of all such sales shall be paid 
to the treasurer of the city, and shall be subject to the order of the said board, 
to be expended by them in the purchase, leasing, repairs or improvements of 
other school-houses, lots, school furniture, apparatus or appurtenances. 

§ 24. The title of the school-houses, sites, lots, furniture, books, apparatus and 
appurtenances, and all other school property hereinbefore in this act mentioned, 
shall be vested in the city of Utica ; and the same, while used for or appropriated 
for school purposes, shall not be liable to be levied upon or sold by virtue of any 
warrant or execution, nor be subject to taxation or assessment for any purpose 
whatsoever ; and the said city, in its corporate capacity, shall be liable to take, 
hold and dispose of any real or personal estate transferred to it by gift, grant, 
bequest or devise, for the use of common schools of the said city, whether 
the same shall be transferred in terms directly to said city by its proper style, or 
by any other designation or to any other designation, or to any person or persons 
or body, for the use of said schools. 

§ 25. All former acts and parts of acts in relation to common and free schools 
in the said city, inconsistent with the provisions of this act, are hereby repealed. 



[Laws of 1850, chap. 66, as amended hy chap. 258 of 1852 and chap. 348 of 1854.] 

Section 1. The board of school commissioners of the city of Utica shall 
annually prepare an estimate of the amount of money to be raised in the said city 
for the payment of teachers' wages ( exclusive of the money now required, or which 
may hereafter be required by law to be appropriated or apportioned for the use 
of common schools in said city), and present the same to the common council of 
said citj', and said common council shall cause the same to be levied and collected 
in the said city in the same manner as other city taxes are levied and collected ; 
but the sum to be raised by virtue of this section shall not in any year exceed 
twice the sum appropriated or apportioned to the city by virtue of the present or 
any future general law in reference to common schools. 

§ 2. The said board of commissioners shall appoint a superintendent of common 
schools for the city, to hold his office during the pleasure of the board, and to 
perform such duties in the care and oversight of the schools in the city as it 
may charge him with. He shall be paid such compensation for his services as 
the board shall from time to time determine, which shall be audited and allowed 
as other town charges are in the said city. 



[Laws of 1853, chap. 2T2.] 

Section 1. After the passage of this act, the commissioners of common schools 
in the city of Utica, for the time being, shall be the trustees of the Utica academy, 
and possess the powers and perform the duties which the present board of trus- 
tees thereof possess and are charged with. 

§ 2. The said academy shall be one of the common schools of the said city of 
Utica, but shall continue subject to the visitation of the regents of the university, 
and entitled to all the rights and privileges which it has hitherto possessed. 

§ 3. A majority of the board of trustees shall constitute a quorum to transact 
business. 



WATERLOO— WEST FAEMS. 471 

WATERLOO. 

[Laws 0/^1853, chap. 151. ] 

This act makes the same provisions in tenor and effect for districts Nos. 1 and 
15, respectively, in the village of Waterloo, as those of the act on page 375, ante, 
in respect to districts Nos. 2, 3, 5 and 7 in Castleton. 

f Laws of 1855, chap. 238. ] 

Section 1 . The trustees of school district number one, in the town of Waterloo, 
in the county of Seneca, and their successors in office, are hereby created a body 
corporate, by the name of the " Trustees of Waterloo imion school," and em- 
powered to establish and organize a classical school in said district and in the 
village of Waterloo, which school shall be subject to the visitation of the regents of 
the university of this state, and to all laws and regulations applicable to the incor- 
porated academies thereof, and shall be entitled to all the privileges of such 
academies, and sliare in the distribution of the moneys of the literature fund of 
this state as the academies thereof; and said trustees shall have authority to 
make regulations respecting the attendance of the children of the said district in 
the school-houses thereof, the transfer of them from one room or school-house to 
another, the instruction and studies to be given and pursued in said schools ; 
provided, however, that this act shall not affect the rights and duties of said 
trustees and district under the statutes of this state relating to common schools, 
or under any special act relating to said district number one. 



WEST FARMS. 
[ Laws of 1853, chap. 365. ] 

Section 1. School district number one, in the town of West Farms, shall form a 
permanent school district, and shall not be subject to alteration by the town 
supeiintendent of common schools for the town in which said district is situated. 

§ 2. The said district shall be under the direction of a board, to be styled the 
board of education of school district number one, town, of West Farms, which 
shall be a corporate body in relation to all the powers and duties conferred upon 
them by this act, and shall possess the general powers and be subject to the 
liabilities and restrictions imposed by the eighteenth chapter of the first part of 
the Revised Statutes. They shall possess all the powers and be subject to all the 
duties in respect to said district that the trustees of common schools now possess 
or are subject to, together with such other powers and duties as are given and 
imposed by this act. The said board shall consist of nine members, a majority 
of whom shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. James Woods, 
Benjamin Harrison, F. W. Gilley, William H. Merritt, L. K. Osborne, Stephen 
Angell, Harry M. Morris, Myron Finch, Gouverneur Morris, shall compose the 
first board of education, and shall hold their office from one to three years, that 
is to say, three shall go out in each year, and in the order in which their names 
stand recorded in this section. The said board of education shall meet for the 
transaction of business as often as once in each month, and may adjourn for any 
shorter time. Special meetings may be called by the president, or, in his absence 
or inability to act, by the secretary or any other member of the board, as often 
as necessary, by giving personal notice to each member thereof, or causing a 
written or printed notice to be left at his last place of residence at least twenty- 
four hours before the hour of meeting. And if any member of the said board 
shall refuse or neglect to attend any three successive stated meetings of the board, 



472 WEST FARMS. 

and if no satisfactory cause of his non-attendance be shown, the board may 
declare his office vacant. No member of said board shall receive any pay or 
compensation for his services. It shall not be lawful for any member of said 
board to become a contractor for building, or making any improvement or repairs 
authorized by this act, or be in any manner, directly or indirectly, interested either 
as pi'incipal, partner or surety in any such contract. All contracts made in vio- 
lation of this provision shall be absolutely void, and the person so violating shall 
forfeit the sum of five hundred dollars, to be prosecuted for and received and 
used by said board for school purposes. 

§ 3. There shall be elected, at each annual district meeting, three members of 
said board of education, who shall hold office for three years. There shall also 
be elected at the same time one collector, to hold office for one year, and also 
three persons as inspectors of election for the ensuing year, all of whom shall be 
citizens, and taxable inhabitants of the district ; said election shall be by ballot ; 
notice thereof shall be given two weeks previous, by the board of education, in 
any two local newspapers having the largest circulation. The election shall be 
held and conducted, the votes shall be canvassed, and the result of the election 
shall be determined in the same manner as for town officers. 

§ 4. The collector shall collect and pay over the school moneys, assessed upon said 
district, to the treasurer of the board of education ; he shall possess all the powers 
and be subject to all the duties of a town collector, and shall, within ten days 
after receiving notice of his election, execute and deliver to the said board of 
education a bond, in such penalty and with such sureties as the said board may 
require, conditioned for the faithful discharge of his duties ; in case said bond 
shall not be given within ten days after receiving such notice, such office shall 
become vacated, and said board may make appointment to supply such vacancy. 

§ 5. The said board of education shall, at their first annual meeting, choose 
one of their nil mber for president, one for secretary and one for treasurer, who 
shall hold office for one year. In the absence of either of such officers at any 
regular meeting of the board, a president or secretary may be appointed for the 
time being, and election for said officers shall be held thereafter on the same day 
of the same week of the same month in which the first election was held. If from 
any cause the election shall not take place on the day appointed it shall be held 
within one week thereafter ; until such election the old officers shall continue to 
perform their respective functions. The treasurer shall, within ten days after 
receiving notice of his appointment, execute and deliver to the said board of 
education a bond in such penalty and with such sureties as they may require ; 
in case such bond shall not be giv«n within ten days after receiving such notice, 
such office shall thereby become vacated, and said board may make an appoint- 
ment to supply such vacancy. Said board may appoint a clerk, whose compen- 
sation shall be fixed by them, and who shall hold office for one year. The said 
clerk shall keep a record of the proceedings of the board, and perform such other 
duties as the board may prescribe. The said record, or a transcript thereof certi- 
fied by the president and clerk, shall be received in all courts as prima facie 
e\'idence of the facts therein set forth. 

§ 6. The said board of education shall call an annual district meeting on the 
first Monday in June, and shall submit thereto a full report, in writing, of their 
doings as such board, and shall state therein the number and condition of the 
schools in said district under their charge, and the number of scholars attending 
the same, the studies pursued, the amount of moneys received from the state and 
from other sources, as well as the amount raised in the district for school pur- 
poses, the expenditures of the same, and all the particulars, in detail, relating to 
the schools in said district, which report shall, immediately after it is made, be 
printed in two newspapers published in the district for two weeks consecutively. 

§ 7. The said board of education are hereby authorized and directed to levy 
and collect by tax in each year, upon all the taxable property in said district, 
such sum as may be necessary, not exceeding in amount one-half of one per cent 
on the value of such taxable property, as the same shall be assessed by the asses- 
sors of the town, as taken from their last assessment roll, which sum shall be 



WEST FARMS. 4lS 

applied to the necessary and contingent expenses of the schools and said district ; 
and when, in the opinion of the said hoard, it becomes necessary to build an 
additional school-house or houses in the district, or to enlarge those already 
built, they shall give public notice, of at least fifteen days, of the site or sites 
selected for such purposes, and of the amounts required for the purchase thereof, 
inclusive of the building and of the cost of the furniture, &c., and at the same 
time call a district meeting, to which the same is to be submitted ; and unless a 
majority of all the tax payers of the district present shall oppose the proposed 
plan, then the said board may proceed to raise the means by levying a tax, as 
above, not exceeding in amount one-half of one per cent on the value of the tax- 
able property in the district. 

§ 8. The said board of education may make all necessary by-laws for their own 
government. Vacancies in the board, occurring by resignation or any other 
cause, the same may be filled by the board until the next annual election, when 
such vacancies shall be filled in the same manner as those caused by expiration 
of term of oflice. The title of the school-houses, sites, lots, furniture, books, 
apparatus and appurtenances, and all other school property in the said district, 
shall be and the same hereby is vested in the said board of education ; and the 
said board, in its corporate capacity, may take, hold and dispose of any real or 
personal estate, transferred to it by gift, grant, bequest or devise, for the use of 
the common schools in the said district. They shall have and possess within the 
said district all the rights, powers and authority of town superintendent of com- 
mon schools. They shall have the entire control and management of all the 
common schools within the said district, and all the property belonging to the 
same. They shall require one of the members of the said board to visit each 
school in said district at least once in each week, to render such assistance to the 
teachers and advice to the pupils as may be necessary, and to see that the regu- 
lations are rigidly adhered to. Said board shall have power to make all war- 
rants, for the collection of the taxes to be raised by them, returnable at sixty or 
ninety days, in their discretion, and to renew the same whenever it shall become 
necessary. 

§ 9. All moneys to be received by virtue of this act, and all moneys by law 
appropriated to or provided for said district, shall be paid to the treasurer of said 
board, who, together with the sureties upon his official bond, shall be accountable 
to said board of education. Said treasurer shall not pay out any of such money, 
except by resolution of said board and upon an order drawn by the president, and 
certified by the secretary to be so drawn in pursuance of such resolution. 

§ 10. The trustees of the town of West Farms shall pay over to the treasurer 
of the board of education the proportion of the school fund belonging to the town 
of West Farms to which the said district number one shall or may be entitled, 
together with the interest thereon, to be used by such board of education for 
school purposes. 

§ 11. The town superintendent of West Farms, the trustees and collector of 
district number one of said town, shall pay over to the treasurer of the board 
of education all moneys belonging to said district or to which said district may 
be entitled for school purposes. 

§ 12. The board of education shall have control and charge of the district school 
library in said district. They may employ a librarian and assistants, make such 
additions to the library and such regulations therefor as they shall deem necessary. 

§ 13. The said board of education may call special meetings of said district 
whenever they may deem it necessary ; they shall give notice of the same by 
posting up a written or printed notice thereof in at least five public places in said 
district, and by publishing the same in two newspapers published in said district 
at least two weeks previous to the time fixed for such meeting, which notice 
shall state the time and place of such meeting and the purpose for which the 
same is called ; and no business shall be transacted at any such special meeting 
except that stated in the notice calling the same. 

§ 14. All laws and parts of laws inconsistent with this act are hereby repealed, 
so far as relates to district number one, in the town of West Farms aforesaid. 

[CODE.J 60 



474 WILLIAMSVILLE. 

WILLIAMSVILLE. 

[ Laws of 1846, chap. 119. ] 

SecTroN 1. The trustees of the school district at the village of Williamsville, in 
the town of Amherst and county of Erie, are hereby authorized, if the inhabi- 
tants of said district shall at any regular school district meeting so direct, to 
make thereafter, and until the said inhabitants shall in like manner otherwise 
direct, separate and distinct rate bills for the payment of the wages of the 
teachers in the primary and higher department of the schools kept in the said 
district ; in such manner to collect, on account of scholars attending each depart- 
ment, such balances as may be justly due for the wages of the teacher or teachers 
in that department, after the application to that purpose of such share of the 
public moneys as shall be apportioned to each department by such trustees, by 
giving to each such proportion of the whole sum applicable to the payment of 
teachers' wages in both departments as the number of scholars who shall have 
attended such department during the time for which such rate bill is to be made 
shall bear to the whole number of scholars attending both of such departments 
during the same period. 



INDEX. 



ALBANY: Pass. 

School laws, 361 

ALIENS : 

When may hold oflSce 17 

When qualified to vote, 81, 209 

ANNUAL MEETING: 

Time of, 3, 20, 103, 204 

Elections at, 59, 218 

Any business legal at, 63, 214 

Surprise, good cause for ordering new meeting, 64, 75 

Noticed for tenth and adjourned to eleventh, held to be legal, 94 

Estimates of expenses must be submitted item by item, 94, 225 

General powers, 213 

ANNUAL REPORTS OF TRUSTEES, pages 301 to 317 : 

Time when to be made, 301 

What to contain, 302 

Form of and to whom made, 304 

Children at poor-house and asylums, 306 

Enumeration of children, 307 

Indian children, 308 

Reports for joint districts, , ... 312 

" for separate neighborhood, 312 

Penalty for false reports, 313 

APPEALS, pages 317 to 324 : 

Jurisdiction of school department, 12, 43, 72 

Operates as stay of proceedings, 70 

Letters, and ex parte applications, ■,. .. 321 

Rules respecting appeals, 322 

APPORTIONMENT OF SCHOOL MONEYS : 

State tax, 120 

Common school fund, 120 

United States deposit fund, 120 

School moneys, how to be expended 121 

Library money, 121 

Salaries of school commissioners 122 



476 INDEX. 

PAfiX. 

Mode of one-third apportionment to districts, 122 

Districts entitled to draw money, 124 

Districts, number to be enumerated, 125 

Two-third apportionment by population, 127 

■ Defective census, how supplied, 137 

Clerks of supervisors to report to State Supt. the county valuations, . . . 137 

ARBITRATION : 

Claims may be settled by, 22, 246 

ASSESSMENT: 

Notice, when required, 17, 44, 73, 284 

Non-resident land, roll guide to valuation, not to liability, 93 

See title " tax." 

ASSESSMENT ROLL: 

When deemed complete, 104 

Valuations, how ascertained, 282 

ASSESSMENT AND COLLECTION OF TAXES, pages 267 to 301 : 

Real estate, 267 

Personal propertj'^, 268 

Non-residents, debts due to, 271 

Land, real estate and real property, 268 

Property of temporary sojourners, 268 

Property exempt, 269 

Rents reserved, 270 

Land of non-residents, 272, 276 

Land worked by contract, 273 

Land worked by agent, 275 

Tenant at will, 276 

Return of land for unpaid taxes 277 

Certificate of trustees, 278 

Board of supervisors, 279, 280 

County treasurer, 279 

Owner of land may pay, 280 

Land in two or more towns, 281 

Certificate of equalization, 281 

Valuations, how ascertained, 282 

Reduction, when to be allowed, 284 

Claim of reduction, , 286 

Exemption from tax for building house, 287 

Tax list, when to be made out, 287 

Form of tax list 289 

Warrant to collector, 290 

Deliveiy of warrant, 291 

Suits against collector, 294 

Levy and collection, 296 

Renewal of warrant, 298, 300 

AUBURN : 

School laws, 363 

BAIL : 

Of collector, cannot be released, 22 



INDEX. 411 

Paoe. 
BLIND : 

Selection of pupils, 116 

BOARD OF TEACHERS : 

How to be provided for, 3, 248 

BOARDS OF SUPERVISORS : 

. State tax, 120 

Clerk to transmit valuation to superintendent, 137 

Salaries of school commissioners, 183 

Auditing accounts of commissioners, 183 

Unpaid taxes, 279 

Costs and charges of district oflScers, 339 

BROOKLYN : 

School laws, 368 

BUFFALO : 

School laws, 371 

BUILDING COMMITTEE : 

Agents of trustees, 11, 66, 246 

CAMILLUS AND GEDDES: 

School district No. 1, 873 

CANANDAIGI/A : 

Schools in village, 373 

CASTLETON : 

Districts 2, 3, 5 and 7, 376 

CASTLETON AND SOUTHFIELD: 

District No. 1, ." 373 

CERTIFICATE : 

Annulled for cruelty 18, 35 

Notice of intention to annul, 24, 172 

Annulling of, ends contract to teach, 36 

Examination for, 97 

Forms, 168 

Annulling 171 

CHAIRMAN OF MEETING: 

His right to vote, 68, 216 

CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS : 

Selection of pupils^ ..^-> 6, 115 

CHILDREN : 

Enumeration of, 16, 23, 38, 306, 307 

School age of, 309 



478 INDEX. 

Paoi. 

Non-resident, -. 310 

Colored, schools for, 343 

CLERK: 

Elected trustee, vacates clerkship, 5 

Notice to call meetingr may be verbal, 43 

Cannot employ another to give notices, 43 . 

Powers and duties, 240 

CLERK OF SUPERVISORS : 

Transmit valuation to State Superintendent, 137 

CLYDE HIGH SCHOOL: 

Schools in Galen, 376 

COHOES : 

Schools in 377 

COLLECTOR : 

Must obey warrant ; neglect finable and bail cannot be released, 22 

Delivery of warrant to, 291 

Fees, 291 

Penalty for neglect 293 

Return of collector, 293 

Bond, form of, 295 

Execution of warrant, 294 

Force of warrant, 293 

COMMISSIONERS : 

Cannot declare void proceedings of predecessors, 1 

Consent to additional site, 103 

Consent to raise tax over $400, 12, 229 

General duties, 156 to 179 

See title " School Commissioners." 

COMMON SCHOOLS: 

Free to whom, 810 

COMMON SCHOOL FUND: 

Income, 120 

CONSOLIDATION OF DISTRICTS : 

Rules to govern, 57, 68 

CONTINGENT EXPENSES: 

Tax for illegal, 3, 225 

COSTS: 

When tax may be raised to pay 23, 339 

Under chapter 214, Laws of 1847, 43, 72 



INDEX. 479 

Pagx. 
COUNTY TREASURER: 

Not entitled to per centage, 9 

When to apply for school moneys, 141 

Notice to supervisors, 141 

Commission of one per cent, 142 

To pay unpaid taxes, 279 

DEAF AND DUMB: 

Selection of pupils, 115 

DISMISSAL FROM SCHOOL: 

On what grounds, 3, 811 

DISTRIBUTION OF SCHOOL MONEYS: 

School moneys to be paid into state treasury, 138 

How transferred, 138 

How drawn from the treasury, 139 

When to be drawn, 139 

For what cause to be withheld, 133, 140 

County treasurer to draw for, 141 

Notice to supervisors of towns, 141 

Bond to be taken from supervisors, 142 

DISTRICT, DIVISION OF : 

Effect upon officers, 5 

Size of new districts, 57 

Alteration of, 98, l94 

(See titles " School District" and "Meetings." 

DISTRICT MEETINGS AND DISTRICT OFFICERS, pages 199 to 239 : 

First meeting of new district, 199 

Notice of, 200 

Notice, how served, 202 

Penalty for neglect to serve notice, 203 

Notice, what to contain, 204 

Annual meetings, 204 

Special meetings, 206 

Residence defined, 207 

Voters at district meetings, 209 

Penalty for illegal voting, 212 

General powers of district meeting, 213 

Challenge of votes 214 

Appointment of chairman, 265 

Choice of officers, 211 

Designation of site, 218, 228 

Levying taxes, , 221, 234 

Alteration and repeal of proceedings, 225 

Book of records, 227 

Tax for more than $400, 229 

Tax by instalments, 231 

Change of site, 232 

Sale of old site, 233 

Proceeds of sale, how applied, 234 

Deficiencies on tax lists and rate bills, 234 



480 INDEX. 

Tax of $10 for library, 285 

Library money for purchase of books, 236 

Classification and term of office of trustees, 236 

Term of office under appointment, 237 

Vacancies in office, how filled, 105, 238 

Penalty for refusing or neglecting to serve, 239 

Resignations, to whom made, 239 

EASTCHESTER: 

District No. 4, 381 

ELECTION OF OFFICERS : 

Cannot be rescinded by adjourned meeting, 1, 16 

When set aside, 16 

Minor elected, how displaced, 45 

Person elected, cannot be removed on a collateral issue, 45, 74 

At adjourned meeting, valid, 102 

Choice of officers, 216 

ENUMERATION OF CHILDREN: 

Of temporary residents 16, 38 

Boarders, .' 23, 308 

Of residents, , 306 

Indians, 308 

EXEMPTIONS: 

Duty of trustees, 31, 69 

From tax to build school-house, , 40, 287 

Ministers exempt from tax, 62, 274 

Must be collected by tax, 105 

Indigent persons, 252 

FLUSHING: 

District No. 5, 384 

FORMATION AND ALTERATION OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS, pages 185 to 199 

General rules, 185 

Form of order, 186 

Association of supervisor and town clerk, 188 

Notice to trustees, 190 

Joint districts, , 191, 194 

Orders, Avhen to take effect 193 

Consolidation, 195 

Moneys of annulled districts 197 

Collection of tax lists or rate bills of annulled and dissolved districts, . . . 198 

FORMS : 

Notice of application to remove officer, 112 

Apportionment for teachers' wages, 135 

Certificate of apportionment to supervisor, 136 

Bond to treasurers for towns, 143 

Account of supervisors, 148 

Taking and reporting testimony, 183 

Order for formation of district, 186 



INDEX. 481 

Page. 

Notice to trustees 190 

Joint districts, 191, 191: 

Notice of first meeting, 200 

Contract with teacher, 249 

Order upon supervisor for teachers' wages, 251 

Certificate of exemptions, 253 

Eate bill and warrant, 257 

Teacher's list of dally attendance, 263 

List for term attendance, 264 

Abstract for the year, 265 

Return of land for unpaid taxes, 277 

Certificate of trustees to treasurer, 279 

Treasurer to pay unpaid taxes, 279 

Certificate of equalization in joint districts, 281 

Notice of completion of tax list, 285 

Tax list, 289 

Warrant to collector, 290 

Return of collector, 298 

Bond of collector, 295 

Renewal of warrant, , 298, 300 

Annual report of trustees, 304 

Order of board of supervisors to levy tax for costs and charges of trustees. 342 

Call for meeting to form union free school, 348 

Vouchers of supervisor, 149 

Certificates of teachers, 168 

FORT COVINGTON: 

Schools in districts 1 and 2, 386 

FUEL: 

How provided, 260 

GAMBLING: 

Fines for, a part of school money, 346 

GEDDES : 

District No. 1, '. 373 

GLENS FALLS: 

Libraries in village, 388 

HUDSON: 

School laws, 389 

ILLEGAL VOTING . 

When proceedings will be set aside for, 2, 212, 228 

INDIAN SCHOOLS : 

How supported, 114 

INDIGENT PERSONS : 

Trustees to exempt, 31, 69 

Exempt from rate bill, , 252 

[Code.] 61 



482 INDEX. 

Paos. 
INSTALMENTS : 

Tax by, 67,79,99, 230 

JAMAICA : 

Schools in 392 

JOINT DISTRICTS: 

Alteration and dissolution of, 8, 71, 191, 194 

Order for alteration must show on its face the presence of proper officers, 50 

LANSINGBURGH: 

Schools in, 394 

LEASE OF SITE: 

On what terms, 3, 32 

Lease when authorized, 245 

LIBRARY : 

American books, 335 

What part may be sold, ' 6, 196 

Tax of $10 for increase of, 235 

Laws and rules respecting, 325 

When superintendent may select, 335 

LIBRARY MONEY: 

When to be expended, 41 

For teachers' wages, 41, 236 

LIBRARIAN : 

His duties, 328 

LOCAL LAWS AND REGULATIONS : 
Pages 361 to Index. 

LODI AND OWEGO : 

School laws, 405 

LOCKPORT : 

School laws 394 

LYONS : 

School laws, 402 

MEDINA: 

School law, 402 

MEETINGS: 

Power to appropriate public moneys, 2 

How many voters constitute a meeting, 6, 10, 20, 69 

When trustees bound to call, 9, 20, 77 

Power to raise taxes, 15, 19, 229 



INDEX. 483 

Page. 

Adjourned meetings cannot displace officers 16, 19 

May prescribe terms of contract, 17, 246 

Annual, when to be held, 20, 21, 103, 20-1 

Cannot excuse trustees for neglect to report and pay over balance, 25 

Cannot emjiloy or dismiss teacher, 38 

Cannot annul district, 42 

Questions of order, 42, 90, 226 

Legal, though notice to call verbal, 43 

Illegal proceedings set aside only on appeal, 55 

Notice of object of annual meeting not necessary, 68, 103 

Surprise, cause for setting aside proceedings, .... 64, 75 

Change of site by, 65, 232 

Legal voters at, 67 , 68, 209 

Chairman's right to vote, 68 

Special, object must be stated, 86, 214 

Powers of district meetings, 199, 239 

Annual meetings, 103, 204 

Special meetings, 206 

General powers of meetings, 213 

Additional site, 103, 228 

See titles " Annual Meetings" and " District." 

MINISTERS OF GOSPEL: 

Exempt from tax, 62, 274 

MONTH: 

Twenty-six days being specified, teacher allowed Saturday afternoon or 
alternate Saturdays, month's work, 37, 125 

MORTGAGE : 

Money due on, whom taxable, 39 

MOTIONS : 

Chairman must put, 42, 215 

NEWBURGH : 

School laws, 405 

NEW DISTRICT: 

Officers of, 5, 199 

NEWTOWN : 

School laws, 409 

NEW- YORK : 

School laws, 411 

NON-RESIDENT CHILDREN: 

Terms of admission to school, 1, 10, 56, 100 

Tuition of, 45, 95, 255 

NOTICES OF ALTERATION: 

On whom to be served, 1, 2, 188 

Must be given before order can take effect, 8, 193 



484 INDEX. 

Paqb. 
NOTICE OF MEETING: 

Verbal, sufficient, 2, 43 

Must be given by clerk himself, 43, 240 

Twenty days' notice of new valuation, 44, 73, 285 

Object of annual meeting need not be specified, 63 

Due notice presumed, 95 

Annual meeting, 200 

Trustees to order notices, , 244 

OFFICERS OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS: 

Acts regular till appealed from, 46 

Removal of, for cause, , 58, 62, 112 

Right to hold office will not be inquired into collaterally, 45, 74 

Choice of, , 216 

OLD SCHOOL-HOUSE: 

Avails to be applied to purchase new house and site, 80 

ORDER : 

Void in part and valid in part, 8 

For alteration, when to take effect 8, 193 

Unrecorded, good after five years, 79 

Order to draw money by two trustees, 88 

OSWEGO : 

School laws, , 427 

OWEGO : 

School laws, ; 405 

PENALTIES : 

:For neglect or violation of duty, 338 

For disturbing schools, 344 

For gambling, to whom paid, 346 

PHELPS : 

School district No. 8, 432 

PRAYERS: 

School may be opened with, 4 

POUGHKEEPSIE : 

School laws, 433 

POWERS AND DUTIES: 

Of State Superintendent, 109 to 119, 335 

Of trustees, 241 to 267 

Of district meetings and officers, 199 to 239 

Of school commissioners, 156 to 179 

Supervisors, 145 to 154 

District clerk, 240 

Town clerk, 184 

Collector, 291 to 295 



INDEX. 485 

Pagb. 

County treasurer 141 

Clerk of supervisors 137 

PUBLIC MONEY: 

When to be expended, 2, 78, 360 

To whom to be paid, 3, 62, 82 

How divided between towns, 11, 17, 48, 52, 85 

Wages for winter term, 17 

In reduction of rate bill, 47 

Must be paid over to officers de facto, 61 

Apportionment of, 120 to 127, 360 

Distribution of, 138 to 142 

PUBLIC MONEY: 

When forfeited, may be restored by State Superintendent, 335 

Not expended by district, to be reapportioned, 360 

PULASKI: 

School districts Nos. 25, 27 and 30, 435 

PUNISHMENT : 

Cruelty reprehended, 18 

RATE BILL : 

To pay teachers for different terms, 48, 52, 78 

Legal only for teachers' wages and fuel, 49 

Exemptions, 31, 69 

Deficiencies, .... 234 

How assessed, 254 

Property exempt from, 211, 259 

REAL ESTATE : 

Lying in two districts, how taxable, 40 

Land worked by contract, 100 

Possession defined, 274 

Exemptions, 62, 287 

REAPPORTIONMENT : 

Of moneys unexpended, 360 

RE-ELECTION OF TRUSTEE RESIGNED : 

Cannot be done against his will, 2 

REPEAL : 

General repealing section, 346 

REPORTS : 

Of trustees, children of temporary residents, 16, 38 

What children to be enumerated, 23 

State Superintendent's annual report, 110 

Of trustees, when to be made, 301 

Of school commissionei's, 180 

RESOLUTION : 

Effect of subsequent resolutioUj 6, 226 



486 INDEX. 

Faoe. 
RESIDENCE : 

How gained or lost, 49, 91, 209 

What constitutes, , 207 

ROCHESTER: 

School laws,. 438 

SALEM : 

School laws, 443 

SCHENECTADY: 

School laws, 448 

SCHOOL: 

AVhen trustees bound to open, 5 

Branch schools, 73 

For colored children, 343 

Disturbance of, 344 

SCHOOL COMMISSIONERS: 

Election, 154 to 156 

Jurisdiction, 156 

General duties. 156 to 179 

Visitation of schools, 168 

Advising with trustees, 159 

Advising with other officers, 160 

Resignations, 180 

Filling of vacancies, 180 

Reports to State Superintendent, 180 

Taking affidavits and oaths, 181 

Taking testimony, ■ 181 

Forms, 182 

Salaries and accounts, ; . . . 122, 144, 183 

City superintendents, 184 

Formation and alteration of districts, 185 

Notice to trustees, 190 

Examination of teachers, 165 

Certificates of teachers, 168 

Annulling certificates, 171 

Notice to teacher of intention to annul 173 

Order of annulment, 173 

Teachers' institutes, 175 

Not to be trustee, 217 

SCHOOL DISTRICT : 

Cannot borrow money, 3 

Dissolution is not alteration, 6 

Designation of site, 6 

Dissolution of joint districts, 8 

Establishment by appeal final, 9, 87 

Consent to alteration, 10 

Alteration, 19, 71, 74, 79, 88, 89, 91, 96 

Power to levy taxes, 19 

For uncollected rate bills, 19 

Size of new districts, 57 

Consolidation of, 57, 58 



INDEX. 48 Y 

Page. 

Must be formed of contiguous territory, 80 

Formation and alteration of, 185 

SCHOOL DISTRICT LIBRARIES : 

Rules respecting, 825 

SCHOOL-HOUSE : 

Joint use, when allowable, 3 

Stove and pipe., appendages to, 61 

Purposes for which it is to be used, 70, 246 

Repair of, 259 

SENECA : 

School laws, 454 

SING SING: 

School laws, 456 

SITE OF SCHOOL-HOUSE: 

Designation of, 6, 76, 103 

Title, occupancy good notice to purchasers, 7 

Perpetual lease for, will not be permitted, 82 

Must be described by metes and bounds, 83 

When trustees have located school-house, department will not interfere, 34 

Purchase of additional grounds not a change of site, 34, 62 

Amount of purchase money not limited, and certificate not necessary,. . 41 

Purchase of site, 54, 62, 98, 245 

Change of, by what vote, 65, 231 

Tax for, not raised by instalments, 79 

Additional site, 103 

Sale of old site, , .• 233 

Proceeds of sale, how applied, 234 

SOUTHFIELD : 

District No. 1, 373 

SPECIAL MEETINGS: 

How called, 9, 20, 77, 244 

ST>TE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION: 

Powers and duties, 109 to 119 

His election and term of office, 109 

Salary, 109 

Clerk hire, 109 

Seal of office, 110 

Exemplification and copies of papers, 110 

Visitation and inspection of schools, 110 

Annual report, 110 

Regent of university, ex officio Ill 

County visitors, Ill 

State certificates, Ill 

Removals from office of school officers, 112 

Indian sciiools, , 114 

Charitable institutions, 115 



488 INDEX. 

Fagb. 

Overseers of poor to report deaf and dumb, 115 

Selection of deaf and dumb pupils 115 

Selection of blind, 117 

Forms and instructions, 119 

Duty in case of defective census, 137 

Appeals, 317 

Selection of district libraries, 335 

Apportionment of school moneys, 120 to 127 

" of forfeited moneys, 335 

STATE TREASURY: 

See title " Distribution of School Moneys." 

STATE TAX: 

How raised, 120 

STAY OF PROCEEDINGS : 

Appeal operates as, 70 

SUITS AGAINST DISTRICT OFFICERS, pages 338 to 342 : 

Costs of suits, 338 

Tax for costs and expenses, 339 

Amount of costs and charges, how ascertained, 340 

SUPERVISORS : 

Custody and disbursement of money, 145 to 154 

Supervisors to receive money from treasurers, 145 

Form of bond to treasurer for towns, 143 

Penalty for embezzlement, 146 

Disbursing and accounting for moneys, 146 

Accounting to successors, 148 

Town school fund, 150 

Moneys from overseers of the poor, 152 

Alteration of school districts, 185 

SUPERVISOR : 

May be trustee, 47 

Board for alteration, 19, 71, 74, 88, 91, 96 

Suits against, for school moneys, 301 

Suits for penalties, against trustees, 149, 316, 317 

Forms of vouchers, 149 

SYRACUSE : 

School laws, 457 

TAX: 

For building school-house 1, 7, 98, 229 

For contingent expenses, erroneous, 3 

Note cannot be received in payment, 7 

For more than $400, to build house, 12, 79, 99 

To pay legal costs, 23 

When levied without vote of district, 27, 50 

Money due on mortgage, 39 

For building school-house, who exempt from, 40 



INDEX. 489 

Pagb. 

For purchase of site, not limited in amount, 41, 64 

For stove and pipe, legal, 61 

Ministers of gospel exempt, 62 

For site, not raised by instalments, 79, 99 

Items of expenditure, 94 

Tax by instalments, 67, 79, 99, 229 

Deficiencies, 234 

For repairs, 259 

For fuel, 260 

Tax. without vote of district, 266 

Possession defined, 274 

Equalization of taxes, 281 

TAX LIST : 

When to be made out, 22, 287 

Correction, after part collected, 26 

Must include all taxable inhabitants, 29, 39, 93 

Contiguous territory, 40, 93 

Tax list not having been delivered to collector, the vote to raise it may 

be rescinded, 55 

Notice that it is in collector's hands unnecessary, 73 

In making out, all the trustees must be consulted and act togetlier, . ... 95 

Deficiencies, 234 

Property exempt from, 211, 259 

What to include, 39, 267 

Possession defined, 274 

TEACHER : 

-How to be paid, 3, 82 

Wages, debt cannot be offset against, 3 

Dismissal of, 10 

Improperly dismissed, entitled to full wages, 15 

Certificate annulled for cruelty, 18, 35 

Notice of intention to annul, 24 

Legal employment of, 27 

. Annulment of certificate ends contract to teach, 36 

Saturday's, 37 

Can be employed only by trustees, 38 

Employed by one trustee, report of others, when implied, 80, 82 

Examination for license, 97, 165 

TEACHER'S LIST: 

Teacher not keeping, cannot recover his wages, 2, 263 

TEACHERS' INSTITUTE: 

Conduct of, 175 

TOWN CLERK: 

Board for alteration, 19, 71, 74, 88, 96 

General duties, 184 

Alteration of school districts, 188 

Notice of annual meeting, 205 

TOWN SUPERINTENDENTS: 

Towns transferred, 179 

[Code.] 62 



490 INDEX. 

Paox. 
TROY 

School laws, 459 

TRUSTEES : 

Corporation to hold district property, 313 

Cannot be librarian or collector, 7 

De facto ^ how far acts are binding, 11 

Appointment of, set aside for fraud, 26 

Annual account and payment of balance, 25, 102, 314, 315, 316 

Correction of tax list, 26 

Employment of teacher, 27, 80, 82, 99 

Have no lien on moneys for expenses, 27 

Notice to all, and concurrence of a majority necessary to validity of acts, 28 

Have sole power of making contracts for district, 29, 66 

Have sole executive authority, 30 

Have sole power to employ teacher, 88, 80, 82, 99 

May be elected supervisor, 47 

Division of public money, 11, 17, 48, 52, 78, 85 

Levying taxes without vote, • • • • 50, 266 

What absence will amount to vacancy, 51, 53 

No power to set aside proceedings of a meeting, 55 

Admission of non-resident children, 10, 45, 56, 95, 100, 310 

Removal for cause, 58, 62 

Vacancy, how filled, 65, 105, 238 

Power to establish schools, 73 

Duty to call meetings, 9, 20, 77 

Contract by one, when assent of others will be implied, 80 

Power to call meetings, 83 

Office honorary — without pay, 84 

' Order to draw money, ministerial, 88 

Cannot give and accept notice to themselves, 89 

All must confer and consult together, in order to make their acts 

valid 3, 9, 95 

Reports from joint districts, 180 

Annual reports, to whom made, 180 

Should not be teachers, 99 

Term of office, 236 

Penalty for refusing to serve, 239 

Resignations, to whom made, 239 

Powers and duties, 241 to 267 

How their powers must be exercised, 242 

Calling special meetings, 244 

Notices of meetings, 244 

Making out tax lists, 244 

Annexing warrant to tax list, 245 

Purchase or leasing of sites and building house, 245 

Custody of school-house, 246 

Employment of teachers, 247, 249 

Division of public money, 252 

Exemption of indigent persons, 252 

Payment of teachers, 251 

Rate bill, how assessed, 254, 259 

Repairs of school-house, 259 

Fuel, taxation for, 260 

Blank books for inventory of property and for teachers' lists, 261 

Teacher's list, 262 

Power to levy tax without vote of district, 266 

Assessment and collection of taxes, 267 to 301 



INDEX. 491 

Page. 

Renewal of warrant, 298 

Suit against supervisor for school moneys, 301 

Annual reports of trustees, 301 to 317 

Holding of district property, 313 

Penalty for not rendering yearly account, 315 

Suits for penalties, 316 

Libraries under their care, 827 

Colored children, school for, 343 

Union free school law, 347 

See title " Annual Reports." 

TUITION: 

Of boarder, who responsible for, 45 

TURNPIKE : 

How to be assessed, 84 

UNION FREE SCHOOL LAW : 

Pages S47 to 357 

UNITED STATES DEPOSIT FUND : 

Income, 121 

UTICA : 

School laws, 465 

VACANCY: 

When absence will amount to, 51 

By reason of imprisonment, 53 

In office of trustee, how filled, 65, 105, 238 

VALUATION : 

Where new valuation should be made, 17 

Notice to be given of new valuation, 44, 73 

How ascertained, 282 

Reduction, 284, 286 

VOTERS: 

Right to vote, 61 

Who are legal voters, 67, 68, 81, 90, 209 

Challenge of, 214 

Residence, „ 207 

VOTES, ILLEGAL: 

When proceedings will be set aside for, 99 

WARRANT : 

Time of delivery to collector, 18 



492 INDEX. 

Paob. 
WATERLOO: 

District No, 1, 471 

WEST FARMS: 

District No. 1, 471 

WILLIAMSVILLE : 

School laws, 474 



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